


Paranormal 101: How to Succeed in Ghost Hunting Without Really Trying

by dugindeep (hotsauce)



Category: CW Network RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotsauce/pseuds/dugindeep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are currently 19 paranormal TV shows broadcast across the world, and the Paranormal National Investigators of the Supernatural are no different. Led by Jensen Ackles, the show is a staple on the Travel Channel and of Jared’s TV (and masturbatory) habits. When there’s an opening in the crew, Jared jumps for the chance to join his ghost-hunting heroes. It’s not an easy transition into the cocky gang of paranormal experts, but Jared manages to find his way, and prove what he’s believed all along: ghosts are real. Written for Livejournal's <a href="http://rpf-big-bang.livejournal.com/">RPF Big Bang</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paranormal 101: How to Succeed in Ghost Hunting Without Really Trying

**Author's Note:**

> **Notes** : Inspired by the laughable, obnoxious dudebros on [The Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures](http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures). All locations that are featured as ‘filmings’ in this story are real, as expressed on the internet (and you know everything is true here ;-)). I’ve made some loose assumptions on reasons for supposed hauntings, created original characters related to these places, and created my own internal layouts and egresses and such, but the backgrounds on these stories are based on other’s accounts on various ‘haunted places in X’ web sites. And huge thanks to all my crazy Twitter and LJ friends for helping on this, namely breakinporcelan for giving me the story title and riyku for a hands-on, masterful beta up until the very end :-*

  


It’s well past midnight. After two. Hell, probably four in the morning, but Jared doesn’t care. He turns the TV down just a few clicks and scoots his chair even closer to the set. The only light in the room is the green glow of night vision cameras that illuminate the three figures onscreen whenever the cameras shift.

“They say right here, in this corner, is where Mary Sullivan was killed,” the guy onscreen says with a low drawl. His broad shoulders are in the lower edge of the frame as the camera follows him further into the dank room of a dated, three-story hotel. “In this bed,” he reports, voice surprisingly calm considering the subject matter, “Bellhop, Stephen Mavers took her life. With his hands tight around her neck.”

The guy’s hands are turned together in a death grip just above the empty mattress. He turns to look over his shoulder, stares right into the camera (right into Jared, it seems). He says, “Right here. She struggled for her last breath as he strangled her.”

Jared smiles broadly, so wide that his cheeks hurt and he feels a streak of perversion over the unfolding story, but he can’t stop how much harder his blood pumps the longer the episode runs. His mouth goes dry and he sips from a tall glass of lemonade, gulping quickly so he can return his full attention to the show.

The thrill of watching this in the middle of the night, in the pitch black of his bedroom with his face lit up by the glare of the TV, is more than enough to ramp up his energy. But moreover, it’s the way he can’t stop staring at the glow of the lead’s eyes, the smoothness of his face with the night vision on him.

In that room, the lead lays out on the mattress, arms at his sides and legs straight ahead of him. He wiggles for a moment and his chest rises with a deep breath. “Mary, are you here?” he calls out to the room. “Are you the one who scares away the staff? Are you unable to rest?”

“Dude, what was that?” a deep voice asks from offscreen.

He sits up in the bed with wide eyes. “I heard something. You hear something?”

“Yeah, it was a breathy voice. Someone’s breathing!”

Then a calm voiceover starts as the scene freezes and turns dark with a red circle pinpointing his hand.  
 _Just then, my digital recorder picked up this EVP._

Empty noise amplifies as a scratchy voice says, “No … air,” with the words showing onscreen. Once, twice, and three times over.

Jared grins and stops breathing, waits for the reactions of the guys on his TV.

“Wait, wait,” the lead says excitedly. The men huddle together, all three appearing in the frame as the lead holds his body mic to the recorder to replay it.

_No … air._

“Oh my God, man, that’s–” one guy harshly whispers.

“Dude, she’s saying ‘no air’ because she can’t breathe!” the deeper voice exclaims.

The lead looks around the room, stepping away from the cameras and nodding. “Mary, you’re here, aren’t you? You wanna talk? I’ll talk to you. We just wanna know why you keep scaring people.”

There’s a soft noise onscreen and the camera zips around to an empty doorway.

“What was that?” the cameraman asks as the two others talk over each other.

“I heard knocking?”

“Yeah, knocking. From the left.”

The moment is replayed three times: the lead says _why do you keep scaring people_ followed by a louder, yet muffled knock, and the camera spins to the doorway each time.

Jared sits at the edge of the chair, legs twitching and fingers pushing into his lower lip. “Holy shit,” he whispers. “This is it!”

And indeed it is … the coveted, underground scenes of an episode spliced for television. Deemed _too much_ by the network, but uncovered by fans and spread across the internet. With a passing thought, Jared thanks Chad for uncovering the download among a mess of links on Reddit, but it’s just a fleeting thanks because suddenly there’s shouting onscreen as the cameras shift this way and that. They’re shuffling down the hallway, spinning their cameras forward to see then back around to check out what’s going on when they stop in place and start whispering harshly.

“Where’d he go?”

“He was behind you,” the lead complains. “What do you mean ‘where’d he go’?”

The camera shakes a bit then steadies on the dark hallway. Only harsh breathing can be heard.

“What if he…?”

“Shh-shh-shh!” the lead hushes as he flips his camera around to face him. He slowly turns towards the lens, but keeps his eyes on his partner’s camera. His eyes are steady on the night vision while his chest is expanding with deep breaths, until his sight rises and he holds his breath, staring out into the darkness before them. “Steve!” he yells, but it sounds more panicky than it normally does.

Jared pulls back from the TV screen to let his eyes roam his 32-inch screen and see all of what they’re seeing in that hallway. The two guys onscreen keep whispering about their friend, call out to Mary Sullivan, and breathe louder than ever before, it seems. Jared turns up the volume on the video receiver to hear the voices better and then he can’t focus on anything but the darkness in the middle of the frame. The longer he stares, the thinner the hallway seems, longer, too.

A door slams and when Jared sees a figure moving in his room, he yells in surprise and spills his lemonade all over his pants.

Jared’s teenage sister screams back at him, higher pitched, freaked all the same. “What’re you doing?” she screeches.

Jared roughly sighs then puts his glass down on the dresser holding his TV and pauses the A/V receiver next to the TV. He wipes at his pants to clear all the drink off. “Jesus, Megan” he whines. “What’re _you_ doing?”

“Oh my God, you weren’t,” she complains. She stares at the TV with Paranormal National Investigator of the Supernatural Jensen Ackles in its frame then looks at the wet stain on his pants. She rolls her eyes, and groans. “You’re getting off on … you are so gross, ew!”

“What? It’s just a show!” Jared yells, following her into the hallway. He can _not_ wait to get out of this house and away from his sister, to a place where no one will harass him for watching TV after eleven.

They both come to a halt when their parents meet them from their end of the hallway. “What is going?” their dad asks with a sleep-heavy, but irritated voice.

“Megan broke into my room in the middle of the night and,” Jared’s rambling on, but Megan’s voice is louder and more shrill, so she wins out on her explanation of the event.

“His TV is on way too loud and I went into to tell him to shut it off - it’s the middle of the night! - and he’s in there watching that … that … _that show_ and doing _gross things_ ,” she finishes with a sick moan and points towards Jared’s wet pants.

Their parents look horrified and Jared feels it as he needlessly tugs his shirt down over his sweats. “No I wasn’t! She barged into my room and I spilled juice on me!”

“Oh, sure, Jared,” Megan mocks. “It’s _juice_.”

They start bickering, but it doesn’t get far, because their mom is pushing Megan to her room and their dad rings an arm around Jared’s neck to haul him back to his room. He practically tosses Jared onto his bed and then slaps at the receiver and TV to shut both off. It’s incredibly dark in the room now and his father looming over him with a sharp point of a finger in his face is scarier than anything he’d been watching before Megan barged in. 

“Listen now. Your mom and I are working in the morning, and I realize you don’t care because you don’t have a job-”

“But I-!” Jared argues, only to be cut off.

“But maybe you could hold off on the insane TV watching until the weekends, or even during the day when you’re home alone and not working or in class like your sister?” Jared frowns and his dad does, too. It’s not like Jared enjoys still living at home after being on his own at college; his parents’ insist as long as he’s here, he respects their rules, and he’s a fair enough person to agree that he might be wrong tonight with the loud TV late at night. Still doesn’t mean he likes being lectured.

His dad leans in and lightly taps his cheek before gently grabbing his jaw. “Jared, I love you like you were a real son-”

“I am your real son,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

His dad smirks and taps at his cheek again. “But sometimes you drive me crazy. You’re not stupid, so why do you waste your time on these things?”

Frowning, Jared glances across the mess of his room, one he’s had since he turned seven and he and Jeff were finally given their own spaces. The room is smaller and more cramped than ever with all the random crap he’s accumulated over the years. He’s been planning to get out, and had told himself he would once he graduated college (two years ago), but that plan died out too fast without any luck for employment.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Jared mumbles.

His dad combs over the mess of Jared’s hair and tugs for his attention. “And if you’re gonna … shake the snake, you should at least lock your door.”

“Ew, Dad. I wasn’t!” he argues instantly, useless shame rising up inside. His dad smirks again and winks then leaves Jared alone.

After a few minutes, Jared shucks off his sweats, still wet and getting sticky on his legs. Damn Megan and her stupid insinuation that he’d been jerking off while watching Paranormal Investigators.

So, maybe he would’ve done it after the show was over, and maybe he has before, but she didn’t have to go around claiming she caught him doing it _right now_. He knows to lock his door, and normally hides under the covers to make sure no one sees a thing if they do happen to rush into his room without knocking.

Suddenly, Jared imagines Jensen Ackles’s face taking up the entirety of his 32-inch screen in those last moments before he’d been interrupted. Jensen looks surreal in the green and black of night vision, and sometimes that turns Jared on more than the true colors.

He shuffles to sit at the edge of his bed and turns the TV and receiver back on, this time plugging in a pair of Bose headphones he’d gotten for Christmas. They go along with the mess of sound equipment he’s accumulated in the past six years of running side gigs for bands and small-time musicals across town in between managing to ace his way through audio/visual classes in college. The downside to spending all of that time doing this is coming out the other side without any real job opportunities. The upside is the shitload of equipment he’s got at his disposal.

He flips everything back up and equalizes the sound from the receiver feeding from his computer in the corner and controlled by his wireless mouse and keyboard. He clicks through a few commands and finally brings the show back up, sliding through the media player’s timeline until he reaches the climax of Jensen staring off into the deep reaches of the hallway. Jensen’s barely lit by an amazing green tint that highlights the arched line of his brow and the curve of his jaw. In a word, he’s beautiful, and Jared is transfixed.

Quiet seconds slip by until there’s sharp breath filling Jared’s ears and the camera shakes as Jensen Ackles and Chris Kane step forward. Jensen’s head starts to tip back, but his eyes are glued to whatever’s in front of them, and he mumbles, “Oh, no.”

“Steve!” Chris yells from beside Jensen. “Steve! What’s up, buddy?”

Slowly, Steve comes into focus at the end of the hallway. The camera zooms in and Steve’s completely still with his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His head is tilted with his ear flat to his shoulder, eyes wide and staring right back at them, and no matter how many measured steps they take towards him, he doesn’t move a millimeter.

Jared slides to the very edge of the bed with his eyes directly on Steve’s cold, blank gaze, and then he flinches when Jensen’s face takes up the whole of the screen again when he looks into Chris’s camera.

“We’re done,” Jensen announces, voice hard and absolute. “Call upstairs, we’re getting out of here.”

The view flips back to Jensen’s camera, focused on Steve for long moments until it’s obvious that it’s a static frame to emphasize Steve’s condition. The scene changes to a planted outdoor camera at the front entrance of the hotel with the manager letting them out into the daylight. As the three paranormal investigators slowly exit, Jensen and Chris leading Steve down the long driveway before them, Jensen’s stoic voiceover comes on.

_What began as a one-night lockdown, one like every other we’ve experienced in our time on Paranormal National Investigators of the Supernatural, ended as a permanent lock-in. Steve Carlson, a paranormal investigator and our partner for seven years, walked in, but something else walked out._

* * *

Jared has cereal for a late lunch while leaning against the island in the kitchen and staring out at the back yard. He’s unearthly tired having stayed up combing the internet for any and every account of Steve Carlson before, during, and after the Willshire Hotel.

While he dove deeper into blogs and random fan accounts, Jared had heard the house come alive as his parents got ready for work and Megan for school, but he’d just turned the volume on his computer louder, tucked his headphones a little tighter, and continued listening to podcasts from fans and fellow paranormal specialists and informal interviews of Jensen Ackles and his crew.

Jared had been worn out after the hours of research, but he didn’t sleep much when he finally gotten into bed. His mind ran through the episode repeatedly as he re-imagined what happened in that hotel and reheard Jensen and Chris explain it all from their point of view. Steve Carlson had been possessed by the spirit of the hotel’s bellhop, Stephen Mavers. Random blogs claim that sources close to Carlson say he’s done with this career, others note he isn’t even able to communicate on his own, still crippled by the emotional event. Nothing is official, though.

A month has passed since the season finale first aired - stripped of the scenes where the crew finds Steve in that hallway - and the network hasn’t let any of this news through. Nothing has been stated on the official website and the show’s message boards are cleaned out any time someone mentions it. Only fan sites and blogs have any account of the video, but they’re mostly the same: all speculation and no real content.

It’s one hell of a cliffhanger before summer break, and Jared doesn’t know how he’ll survive until October to find out what happens to Steve in the long run or what the paranormal crew will do about filling the position – how they’ll recover from losing one of their own.

A smack at the back door makes Jared jump and spill his cereal bowl on its side. Worse yet is the mangled image of a face pressed tight to the stained-glass block window, and it makes him think of Steve’s crooked look in the center of his TV screen. The face pulls back and is still blurry behind the swirled glass, but the cackle is familiar, and Jared rolls his eyes as the lock jiggles just right and Chad gets the door open.

“Dude, you’re gross,” he says upon entering, taking in Jared’s wrinkled sleep clothes and messy hair. He slings his messenger bag onto the island and flicks Jared’s nose before Jared can move out of the way. “Are we sleep-eating now?”

Jared cringes as he leans away and works a hand through the mess of his bedhead, suddenly wishing he and Chad hadn’t spent all of last summer perfecting lock picking. It’s not like they had much else to do with their few other friends off working steady jobs. Belatedly, he curses himself for forgetting to replace the back lock like his dad had asked last week.

“I thought you had work?” Jared asks as he cleans up the spilt milk and soggy flakes on the counter.

“You know it’s like four in the afternoon, right? I got off half an hour ago.”

Jared considers that he didn’t get to sleep until after eight, and with a full night’s - or day’s - sleep, it shouldn’t be so surprising that it’s this late in the afternoon. “I finally got the Paranormal Investigators download,” he mumbles before slurping down what’s left in his cereal bowl.

Chad reaches across the island and smacks Jared’s shoulder. “Dude, it’s awesome, right?”

Grinning and feeling the excitement that thrummed through him as he watched it early this morning, Jared dumps the mess of his aborted cereal into the sink and then throws his hands out. “How can no one know anything? After a month? Seriously?”

“I don’t know, but it’s killer timing.” Chad picks up an apple from the fruit bowl in the center of the island and rubs it on his hoodie before biting into it. Around his chewing, he mumbles, “They’re totally replacing him.”

Jared had read that, but hardly believed it. “Why?”

“The dude’s possessed!” Chad exclaims, spitting apple across the counter. “They can’t bring him along anymore. He’s a threat!”

Jared nods with Chad, figuring it’s as much a dramatic turn for the upcoming season as it is a liability to keep Carlson on the show.

From the other end of the house, there’s a rush of noise and talking, and Jared groans at the thought that his mom and sister are home and he’s still here in the kitchen in his pajamas.

When they reach the kitchen, they both stop and roll their eyes at Jared’s state as well as Chad standing across from him. “Hey, Mrs. P.,” Chad says with a grin before biting into the apple again.

“Chad,” she says with a short nod then looks at Jared just as annoyed before she sighs with a slightly amused look. “Jared. I’m imagining you haven’t done much with yourself today?”

“I had breakfast?” he asks with a small smile.

“You’re such an overachiever,” Megan says, rolling her eyes yet again.

Jared makes a face at her. “I am so not gonna miss you when I leave.”

“You mean _if_ you leave?” his mom jokes, playfully swatting him on the back of the head as she rounds the island.

“Can you take Chad when you go?” Megan asks.

“Dude, that’s harsh,” Chad complains.

“Dude, I hope,” Megan mocks.

“Megan,” their mom says sharply. “Go do homework or something.”

Megan nods and smiles sweetly. “Good idea. I should go study and be smart and motivated so I can go to a good school and get a good job.”

Jared takes it as the jab that is and glares at his sister as she spins out of the room and disappears.

Before the scowl fades off his face, his mom sweeps a hand over his head and kisses his cheek. “And how are you, sleeping beauty?”

For all that his family rags on him for being almost twenty-four, jobless, and stuck at home, his parents do still take moments to accept him. And he knows his mom will listen to him rattle on about anything, because no matter how she nags him, he knows he’s her favorite.

“Chad and I were talking about the leaked Paranormal Investigators episode.”

She eyes Chad digging into the apple, getting far into the core as if he’s mining for the last little bits of it. When he puts the chewed core on the counter, she carefully picks it up by the stem and keeps it far from her body as she drops it into the garbage can behind her. “And also eating all our food, I see.”

“Why else are the apples there?” Chad asks with a toothy grin.

“For _us_ to eat.”

Jared laughs at Chad’s sour look then starts talking excitedly. “So, on their last lockdown, Steve disappeared and then they found him possessed!”

“And Steve is?” she asks, not seeming all that interested in the topic, yet going along with Jared.

“He’s the blond one.”

“Oh, the main guy?” she asks with a smile. “The good looking one?”

“Dude,” Chad groans. “If your mom thinks Carlson’s good looking, then you’ve got big problems in this house.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You can leave any time you want now, Chad.”

“I’m just saying,” he replies with his hands up.

“Anyway,” Jared interrupts. “That’s Jensen, the lead guy who does all the talking? He’s the hot one. Steve’s the one with the curly blond hair who always gets stuck in bad places by himself.”

“No wonder he got possessed,” she smarts.

“Chad says he’s not coming back.” Jared turns to Chad and shrugs. “So, are they really doing auditions or something?”

“They announced this morning that they’re having interviews in L.A. to fill his spot,” Chad replies. “Ingenious, if you think about it. Can you imagine the kind of crazy they’re gonna attract? Who wants to be on a show where you have a chance of being possessed by demons? Those interviews alone should be the show.”

“Holy shit,” Jared laughs. His mom smacks his back and he flinches away. “Sorry, but seriously! That’s insane publicity.”

“Exactly. It’s not like anyone really wants to be on that show after-”

“I would be on that show!” Jared laughs. “Can you imagine going around to these awesome places and being paid to hang out all night with those guys?”

“Are you serious?” Chad asks with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I am!” he replies excitedly. “Travelling across the country with the most popular ghost hunters-”

“On the Travel Channel,” his mom butts in as she gathers things near the stove for dinner.

Jared rolls his eyes, but goes on. “And you get to find out about the most haunted places and screw around with all that camera and sound equipment-”

“You are the world’s biggest A/V nerd, I swear,” Chad mumbles under his breath.

“And you’re paid to interact with ghosts and demons.”

His mom stares at him. “You are not serious.”

“It’d be cool to do,” Jared shrugs.

“You _are_ kinda crazy,” Chad says, suddenly serious. “Remember when you crashed at the CVS on Stanley Street because you believed Sandy when she said it was haunted.”

“I totally heard something and you saw the tape!” Jared argues.

Chad smacks the counter. “Dude, you should do it.”

“I should!”

His mom drops a can to the floor and glares at them both. “You should not.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Jared asks, even as he giddily laughs at the off-chance he could actually work on his favorite show. “I get a job?”

“You get possessed!”

He eyes her for a second then smirks. “I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff.”

“That was before it was _you_ walking into the basement of hell!”

“He comes into my basement all the time and you never care,” Chad jokes.

“Chad, get out.” When Chad just snorts, she points at the back door.

“Dude, really?” he moans, grabbing his bag off the counter and walking away.

Jared glances at the clock on the microwave and smiles. “It’s been twenty minutes. New record.”

“Small blessings,” Chad smirks then leaves.

When Jared turns to his mom, she’s glaring at him. “What?”

“Are you actually serious about this?”

“Semi-serious?” he asks awkwardly.

She keeps staring at him and he feels uncomfortable with the way she shifts into the judgmental motherly look. “Are you considering this just because of your crush on that guy?”

Jared’s mouth flaps open and closed, unable to answer. Okay, yeah, he originally got into the show because of how hot Jensen Ackles is, and surprisingly even hotter in night vision, but Jared also _really_ loves the show. It’s been his obsession for three years … not to mention that camera work is right up his alley.

“At the very least, I’ll get out of your hair for a few days,” Jared offers. He turns on his puppy dog eyes to combat her judgy-mom look. 

“How’re you paying for this?”

“Well, I have some money …” He trails off as he mentally counts his bank account, which has been dwindling since his graduation party two summers ago. 

After a few too-long moments, she sighs and he grins in triumph.

“Jared, I swear to God,” she says with a huff and goes back to the stove.

“Mama,” he whines a little.

She sighs again, and her shoulders rise up. “If you do this, if I give you the money and nothing happens, you come right back and you’re getting a job.”

Jared stands next to her with the same sad puppy look, though it’s morphing into excited puppy, he’s sure. “I swear I will get a job.”

“Any job. I don’t care how beneath you it is, but you’re gonna work and start paying for all the food you and Chad eat.”

He wraps his arms around her shoulders and squeezes hard, shaking them from side to side. “I promise.”

“Do _not_ tell your father what you’re really doing,” she mumbles. “Just say it’s a road trip. Or a real job interview. He will kill me for giving your lazy ass money.”

Jared kisses the side of her head with a loud smack. “I love you! You’re the best mom ever.”

“Or the craziest.”

* * *

Two weeks later, Chad takes a few days off work and they road trip up to L.A., sharing the drive in Chad’s used SUV. After an all-night ride, they pull up in front of the studio and Jared takes the backseat to change into dress pants and a suit shirt then tumbles into the front seat to use the flip-down mirror to fix his tie.

“Are you serious?” Chad asks, side-eyeing him.

Jared shakes his head and focuses on tugging the knot into place. “I may not get a lot of interviews, but I know you’re supposed to look your best.”

“This is Paranormal National Investigators of the Supernatural. It is not 60 Minutes.”

“If I’m gonna have a chance, I gotta be serious about this.”

Chad smacks his lips as he stares at the throngs of people hanging out on the front lawn and coming and going from the building. “Yeah, you gotta be _real_ serious.”

Jared looks up and his eyes widen at the number of people across the lawn. They range from late teens on up to grandparents, all dressed casually. The people who are done up at all seem more like they’re heading out to a club right after - or just came from one - with girls in halter tops and guys in absurdly bejeweled graphic tees and designer jeans.

“Jesus, it’s like we’ve walked onto the set of Jersey Shore,” Jared groans. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

To be fair, Jared’s well aware this is the way the guys dress on the show - all casual with designer tees, hoodies, jeans, and boots - but he suddenly feels in over his head, especially since he managed to shine his dress shoes in the hotel the night before and only packed the bare essentials.

A group of teenagers walk by the SUV holding homemade EMF readers and micro-recorders, chattering on about some spirit they’d tracked down the night before in a warehouse two streets over. Jared throws himself back against the seat and covers his face. “Oh, my God, this is a joke. You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

Chad smacks Jared’s thigh. “I honestly wish I thought this big, but no. This is it, dude.”

“I can’t go in there like this!”

“Maybe you can be ironic about it? The clean cut nerd who’s scared of everything, including fashion sense.”

Jared turns and swats Chad’s shoulder before crawling into the back seat again. He trades his dress pants for the ratty, worn-out jeans he’d travelled up here in, pulls his tie off, rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, and mucks up the more professional style he’d put his hair into that morning.

“Better?” he asks, leaning towards the front seat.

Chad glances back and takes a few moments. “Now you look California gay.”

His nerves have been building for days and with his current predicament plus Chad’s blasé attitude, he’s fit to burst. “You’re not helping, Chad!”

“I actually think I am,” he replies with a shrug. “Look, lose the white shirt and go with something … not so you.”

“Still not helping,” Jared grumbles, but he riffles through his duffel bag anyway.

* * *

Jared waits in line for an hour to get inside the building, another two hours in the lobby on a hard, unforgiving chair, and then is allowed into another room where he watches two dozen hopefuls march in and out of the closed door leading to the interview room.

He gets antsy watching them all interact and talk about cases they’ve worked across the country. One couple is from Upstate New York and go on about the shadowy form they caught on their thermal cameras in an abandoned hospital. A short, shifty guy in the corner has everyone enthralled through his story of camping out in a boarded-up bar up in Washington, spending a week to capture unexplained music and hard-soled dancing on his micro-recorder. And a girl who looks like she might spend her evenings as a low-class Las Vegas showgirl brags about the wax museum she scoped out for tortured lovers who once lived in the top floor of the building.

They all have pictures, audio, and video of their finds, and Jared has nothing with him but his application and a case of nerves that make his legs jittery and his head spin. It gets worse when he’s the last one in the room to be called. As an assistant waits for him by the door, a fresh wave of applicants is ushered into the room, reminding him just how slim his chances are. He’s one of tens of thousands hoping for a shot. Just an unemployed college graduate from San Antonio, Texas, wishing for a break somehow.

He texts Chad to let him know he’s going in, telling him to head back and pick him up soon, and then he steels himself for his chance and follows the assistant through the door.

The next room is wide open, with a table at the far end where Jensen Ackles, Chris Kane, and three others are seated, all talking and laughing over an application that Jensen rips up and tosses over his shoulder.

Jared goes stiff just inside the door as he stares at the panel and then focuses in on Jensen Ackles, who’s smiling and chuckling with his friends. This is the guy Jared stares at on his TV when he replays the show over and over again, memorizing places with rich paranormal histories, listening to Jensen’s low voice recount past terrors. With a perfectly messy style of flicked hair, a snug v-neck, and dark-wash jeans, Jensen Ackles is more gorgeous than Jared’s ever seen in any episode, interview, or promotional photo.

The assistant nudges him forward then shuts the door when she leaves, and the noise at the table quiets down. Jared looks at them and his application crinkles in his hands as he gives a small smile.

“You wanna do the audition from there?” Chris Kane taunts, leaning back in his chair.

“No, sorry,” Jared mumbles, shaking his head. He walks across the room and stands in front of the table. 

Jensen shoots him an odd smile and motions at the application. Suddenly Jared can’t think straight. He takes a deep breath then hands the paper over and stands tall with his shoulders spread wide. “Hi, I’m Jared,” he says awkwardly loud, nerves still running through him and making it difficult to talk freely.

“Jared Pada …” Jensen starts to say.

“Padalecki.”

“What kind of name is that?” Chris asks with a sharp laugh.

Jared tenses, feeling like he’s facing the worst kind of high school bullies with how the panel is looking at him and shooting cocky smiles. “It’s my dad’s,” he tries to joke.

The group laughs _at him_ and Jared curses himself for his answer. “So, Jared,” Jensen starts with a raised eyebrow. “What’s your story?”

He takes another deep breath then rattles on about his age, college education, living at home, having a hard time finding a job, the two-day road trip he and Chad took to get up here, and how he hasn’t missed a single episode of their show. The way the panel eyes him tells him that everything he’s saying is absolutely the wrong information, and they’re all chuckling and whispering as they pass his application around. At the end of the table, Chris and a guy with dark, cropped hair and square glasses run their fingers across the page and mumble and snort to each other. Jared thinks he’s seen that other guy on a few episodes as one of the crew’s technology specialists, Mike or something. 

It doesn’t make this any easier to survive.

“You’ve seen all the shows?” Jensen asks, eyes roving up and down in assessment.

“Yeah, I have. A few times over.”

“What do you like about it?”

“You mean besides the ghosts?” he lightly jokes. The panel laughs, but this time it doesn’t seem so harsh. “In Season 2, you went to the Moody Plantation in Memphis. It was pretty awesome when you crawled into the old mine shaft. I like that you guys are tough enough to get into the dirty stuff.”

“Dirty stuff?” Jensen asks, smirking. “You know how dirty we get with this _stuff_?”

Jared nods quickly, a little eased by having real questions to answer instead of just rambling about how pathetic his life is without a job and living in his childhood bedroom. “Yeah, I do. I saw the last episode.”

Everyone at the table goes quiet and now five sets of eyes are on him. Chris clears his throat and narrows his eyes. “How much did you see?”

“I saw the extended footage. Off the Internet.”

“Did that scare you, Jared?” Chris asks, leaning back and crossing his arms.

“Shit gets pretty dirty sometimes, ya know?” Jensen adds.

Jared nods again. “I know. I watched it twice, back to back, and then I stayed up all night reading about it.”

“And you’re not afraid of that happening to you?”

He looks right at Jensen through his question, keeping his eyes with Jensen’s and trying to prove that he’s not scared, even if the idea freaks him out. In a good way, he tells himself. It’s the anticipation of staring down fears and coming out on the other side. “No, sir.”

“Sir,” the tech on the end chuckles.

Jensen shoots the guy a look then turns back to Jared. They stare at each other for long, tense moments. Jared wants to look away, but he’s afraid to waver under the scrutiny. “So, what makes you think you’re fit for this _dirty stuff_?”

“I know I don’t have any experience with these kinds of things,” he says slowly and then stops when a guy and girl at the end - two he recognizes from other episodes as paranormal hunters who join the crew for West Coast episodes - snort and bump shoulders as they point at his application. “But I graduated from UT with a bachelor’s in film and production. I ran the audio and video labs for three years and helped produce four student documentaries.”

“So?” the guy on the end - Matt, Jared remembers - asks with a roll of his eyes.

“So, I know my way around cameras and sound equipment.”

Given how no one seems impressed with this side of him, Jared pictures them cackling and tearing up his application the second he’s outside the door, and suddenly, he’s not sure he ever wants to watch another episode of Paranormal Investigators again. Remotely, though, he figures he shouldn’t be surprised with how cocky they all are, or how they’re mocking anything they can get their hands on. The crew acts pretty much this way with every hunt they go on. 

Before, he thought it was hilarious and entertaining. Now, it’s just shitty.

In the awkward silence, Jared pats his hands at his thighs and then flips them out as he clucks his tongue. “And, so that’s me.”

“Alright, great,” Chris says, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. “Thanks for coming all this way.”

“Yeah, hope you get to see the world’s largest rubber ball while you’re on the road,” Matt says with a tight grin.

Jared turns immediately and leaves the room so he can find Chad and head right back to Texas with his tail between his legs. The sooner he gets his mom’s _I told you so_ out of the way, the sooner he can get over this whole thing.

It’s a blur of people in trashy graphic tees and video cameras showing pathetic recreations of the show. The stupid, stupid show that Jared wishes he never gave a shit about, because being rejected by such a pathetic dream is making him reconsider his life choices. Maybe he’ll apply at the grocery store and stock shelves like Chad. Not the greatest job for a college graduate, but he’d rather have something other than _PNIS Reject_ at the top of his resume. Besides Chad would probably put in a good word for him. Hopefully.

He waits out on the lawn while Chad circles around the block. Once the SUV pulls up to the corner, he jumps in and slams the door, releasing a long breath and shaking his head when Chad asks how it went.

“Dude, seriously?” Chad asks.

“It was horrible. They’re looking for ghost professionals or something.”

“They didn’t give a shit about your A/V nerdery?”

“No. They’re just a bunch of cocky dicks fed up on power thanks to their stupid, little TV show.”

“A bunch of cocky dicks, huh?” Chad says as he stares beyond Jared and toward the building.

“ _Giant_ cocky dicks,” Jared nods.

There’s a slap on the SUV’s door and Jared flinches away from the open window to see Jensen Ackles leaning against the vehicle. He watches in horror when Jensen drops his head down to stare at him and Chad. “Heya, Jared.” Jensen grins.

“Uh, hi,” he says, staring at Jensen and wondering why the hell he followed him outside.

“Giant dick, huh?” Jensen asks with one eyebrow up high and the same sure smile on his face. “I appreciate the compliment.”

Jared waves toward the building and immediately goes on defense. “I meant the others. You were … okay.”

“Just okay?”

Jensen’s smiling at him easily and Jared feels his stomach swoop over how good he looks up close. He bites his lower lip and takes in the clear green of Jensen’s eyes, his creamy cheeks dotted with freckles, his plush lips that curl at the corners with his smooth smile, and the slick tongue that comes out to wet those lips. Jesus, even though this whole audition went to shit faster than any other interview he’s had before, at least he’s got this view of Jensen to help him jack off to in the future.

Jensen shifts to lean more comfortably against the door and look further into the vehicle to see Chad. “Is this the friend who drove you up here?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Chad asks with an eager move forward to offer his hand for Jensen to shake. “I’m Chad. Jay’s best friend. And chauffeur.”

Jared shoots him an ugly look before going back to being mesmerized by Jensen being so close, especially when Jensen leans into the SUV to shake Chad’s hand and share hellos. There’s a small whiff of spicy cologne filling Jared’s nose and he wants to chase the smell when Jensen moves back, but that would be pretty damned pathetic. Especially after how everything went inside.

Jensen glances into the back of the SUV. “You guys skipping town already?”

Jared shrugs and keeps quiet because he doesn’t want to admit that his Plan B is to run back to his parents’ house and bag groceries.

“Which UT did you graduate from?” Jensen asks with his eyes right on Jared.

“Austin.”

“Nice,” he nods. “I went there for two years then transferred to Arlington.”

Jared makes a face because for all that he’s read about the Paranormal Investigators (and Jensen, especially), he’d never seen that anywhere. Jensen’s back-story is a little less normal and lot more … paranormally enhanced, if the show’s opening is anything to believe. Jensen’s voiceover always claims that he started filming the supernatural because of his own encounter.

“Really?” Jared asks slowly.

“Yeah. I had this shitty ‘mentor’,” he says, complete with air quotes, “who wouldn’t let me enter my film into the festival because it was ‘incendiary’.”

“Really?” Jared asks again, but he’s more interested than confused. Jensen openly chatting about his time in college, with such an easy and friendly demeanor, is intriguing.

“You ever hear of Wexler? Is he still there?”

“Oh, my God, yeah,” he says quickly. “He was my advisor freshman year.”

“And an asshole.”

“Total asshole,” Jared agrees with a laugh. “He moved me out of the A/V labs because I let a student edit her midterm doc about the LGBT group on campus.”

Jensen smiles and nods. “That sounds like him.”

Jared nods in agreement, adding, “I had Evans sophomore year and she got me back in.”

“Yeah, Evans was a cool one. Did you ever submit to the Austin Festival?”

“No, but I worked on a friend’s film.” The last five minutes have built Jared back up for what he brings to the table, but he’s deflated a bit to have to admit he’s never actually produced his own films. “It was called _The Big Crowd_. She submitted a few years ago and got some good reviews.”

Jensen’s eyes widen then he chuckles. “Are you kidding me? The one with the college students all over the playground?”

He chuckles with Jensen, remembering Sandy’s playful turn on college cliques as kids at the park. “Yeah, that one.”

“It was real funny,” Jensen says with a nod. “And the editing was tight.”

Jared’s breath catches with the compliment and he slowly smiles. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Jensen glances back at the building then gives Jared an awkward smile. “Look, I know those guys are huge dicks, but you watch the show. Are you really surprised?”

“I guess not.” Jared frowns, hating the fact that they went from bonding over their film histories to reliving Jared’s crash and burn.

“We’ve all got a bit of dick in us-”

Chad snorts and Jared cringes at the joke just waiting to be said. Thankfully, Chad stays quiet otherwise, and Jensen shoots them an amused smile.

“And you kinda have to be that way on the show. It’s sort of our style.”

Jared smiles a little. That’s another thing he enjoys about the show; they never take themselves as seriously as most ghost shows out there. “Yeah, I know.”

“Why’d you come out here? Why’d you wanna audition?”

“Because I like the show,” he says with more strength in his voice, defending himself. “And I love filming and producing. I thought it was a good fit.”

“What do you like about filming?”

Jared smiles as he thinks about all the work he did in college. “Catching things on film, getting those quick moments that aren’t always planned, but work. I like experiencing something being created, the planning and all the happy accidents you find. And at the end, I had a part of it.”

“You said you’re not working … What’re you gonna do when you go home?”

It suddenly feels like the kind of interview he should have gotten twenty minutes ago. It sucks that he lost that chance and now Jensen’s asking when it doesn’t matter anymore, when no one else is around to hear it. He shrugs and sighs. “Get a job.”

“You have one lined up?” Jensen asks with strange interest.

“No,” he admits quietly. “But I gotta do something.”

Jensen nods and stands up straight for the first time since he showed up. He pulls a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and opens it up to read for quiet moments. “You ever been to California before?”

“It’s my first time.” Jared chuckles to make it more of a joke than a pathetic fact.

“Is this your cell or home number?” Jensen asks, eyes still on the paper.

Jared sits up to see it’s his application and he can’t believe they didn’t destroy it the second he stepped out of that room or that Jensen Ackles, his crush and TV idol, held onto it for this long. “My cell...”

Jensen folds the paper up and stuffs it back into his jeans then slaps Jared’s shoulder with a slick smile. “Stick around a day or two. See the ocean or something. Don’t waste your first time here, yeah?”

Jared fumbles with something to say, but Jensen doesn’t spend another second with them, walking right back to the building with a tall, bald man at his side, a security guy Jared had seen inside. Chad leans over Jared and they watch Jensen stroll up the lawn, getting stopped for photos and autographs on the way, and neither seems to breathe until Jensen’s inside and out of sight.

“Holy shit,” Jared murmurs.

“That was kinda awesome,” Chad whispers, still in Jared’s space to watch the building. “You two totally geeked together.”

“That was _mega_ awesome,” Jared murmurs.

“Now what?”

Jared grins. “Let’s go see the ocean.”

* * *

They see the water, walking along sand and swimming through dusk. After a change of clothes, they hit a dive bar where they befriend a pair playing darts in the corner, and then spend most of their night trying to beat the guys in Cricket and drinking. It’s not a fantasy style vacation, but it’s a fun getaway with his best friend and the hope of dreams coming true hanging in the background.

In the morning, plagued with hangovers and a 20-some-hour drive ahead of them, they hit the road. And just like the last two days, Jared stares at his phone and waits for it to ring. But it doesn’t.

At least not until he’s back home Monday afternoon, and of course it happens in the middle of a fight with Megan over who ate the last chocolate snack cake because she is a pest.

He clicks his cell on as she yells, “You stuffed it down your big fat mouth!”

“I did not!” he yells back before bringing the phone up to his ear.

“Maybe your boyfriend did then!”

Jared rolls his eyes at the fact that she defaults to calling Chad his boyfriend, like it’s insulting after all these years. “Maybe you can kiss my ass,” he grumbles at her. Then he stalls when there’s laughter coming through the phone. “Hello?”

“Jared? Jared Padalecki?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Jensen Ackles. I’m assuming you’re not still in town?”

“Uh, yeah,” he says, fully embarrassed. “I mean, no, I’m not still in town. I’m back home.”

“I was hoping you weren’t having that kind of fight with a stranger out here. That’s no way to make friends.”

Jared chuckles to himself and cringes. He’s been doing that a lot lately when it comes to this situation. He’s not proud of it. “Um, no, that’s my horrible sister.”

“Your face is horrible,” she complains right at his side.

He elbows Megan away and glares at her. “So, how are you?” he asks Jensen.

“I’m doing pretty good. I meant to call you earlier, but we got all tied up with the auditions this weekend.”

He frowns and imagines Jensen’s that not calling for any good reason if he’s still talking about more auditions. “Yeah, of course. I can imagine,” he mumbles.

Or maybe he’s calling because he liked Jared, like how Jared likes him … and okay, that ramps Jared’s heart rate right up no matter how stupid the idea really is.

Megan leans in and yells, “I can imagine your face stuffed with cake!”

Jared flushes in anger and presses the cell against his chest to not be heard by Jensen. He glares at her and slowly grits out, “You get outta mah face right now, or so help me God, I’mma tell Dad you been drivin’ without your permit.”

As Daddy’s Little Girl, that gets her moving immediately. He takes a deep breath and brings his phone back up, praying Jensen’s hard of hearing and missed all of that, and trying like hell to get his temper back in check.

“Whoo-boy,” Jensen says following a whistle. “You’ve got a good lick of Texas in you.”

He clears his throat, hoping to free up the angry drawl that slips on occasion. “Sorry about that,” he insists with some brightness, thankful Jensen can’t see him blush.

“No, I know. Little sisters are the worst,” Jensen laughs.

Jared moans. “You have no idea.”

“Well, good thing you don’t have to deal with her anymore, right?”

He goes quiet as he thinks it over, because he’s certain the second he’s off the phone, Megan will pounce again.

“You know,” Jensen says slowly. “When you’re jumping around the country.”

After a few seconds, Jared mumbles, “I don’t understand.”

Jensen laughs and it sounds mocking, but he eases the sting when he says, “Jared, you’re in.”

“Holy shit!”

The first thing Jensen thinks when he looks up at the building is that it’s tiny. Inside, the hallways are, too. It’s all far too cramped to contain someone as tall as Jared, he’s sure, but it’s not like there’s much in the budget at the moment. Putting Jared in this place is just short term, just until they get a few episodes in and the network starts to pay Jared. Then Jared can get his own place and Jensen doesn’t have to feel bad about stuffing the kid into a matchbox.

It’s the least Jensen could do, he figures. Well, after offering Jared a job. A no-chance break, really. But Jensen trusts his judgment on most occasions, so he’ll stick to his guns on this one.

Except when he knocks on the door to Jared’s studio apartment, shuffling the straps of his bags over each shoulder, he starts to wonder if he really should’ve gone on a whim with a twenty-three year old film student from Texas. A little voice nags that it’s pretty much the only reason he put his confidence in Jared; he reminds Jensen of himself when he was fresh out of college. Other voices say it’s among other things, but Jensen’s going to ignore all such noises. In the meantime, he listens for Jared on the other side of this door so he can let him in.

He knocks again, harder, and calls Jared’s name at the doorframe.

It’s not so much that he expects Jared to be home, but the kid is new in town and likely has little to do, especially with their early flight in the next morning.

Jensen bangs harder to the tune of the door creaking and the doorframe cracking around the deadbolt. He looks up the frame to the ceiling then around the hallway, trying to estimate just how cheap this building is. He’d say pretty cheap.

He jiggles the handle and with the compromised lock, the door pops open and he nearly falls inside in surprise. The bags tumble off his shoulders, and he’s thankful they’re padded. He’s also glad they create enough commotion that Jared jumps up from the tiny desk in the corner and tugs his headset off. With his wide eyes and messy hair, Jared doesn’t seem so out of place in an apartment so tiny- like a dorm room - and Jensen shakes his head with a sigh, remembering that they’ve got a newbie on their hands.

“Hey, I think your door’s broke,” Jensen says in greeting and gently nudges his bags closer to the small table in the kitchenette.

“Oh, really?” Jared asks as he clears the few things he’d had on the table to make room for Jensen’s bags. “I should probably call the super.”

“You should probably just fix it yourself.”

“Why?”

Jensen gives Jared a long look then chuckles to himself. “Because I don’t think they like fixing shit other people broke.” When Jared doesn’t say anything, Jensen admits, “I broke it.”

“You broke my lock?”

“I did. On accident,” he adds when Jared still seems completely lost. Then he motions at Jared’s desk and at Jared himself. “You were all in a mode and there’s no one else to answer the door.” Jensen takes another glance around the four walls with bare furniture and little in the means of walking space. He swears under his breath. “Man, this place is tiny.”

“Yeah, well,” Jared says awkwardly. “I didn’t have much choice there.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jensen offers with a small frown. He unpacks his bags and covers the table with all the tech equipment they’ve ever used on the show. “But we’ll be on the road tomorrow and the hotels are much nicer than this.” He thinks for a second and chuckles. “Well, they’re not the nicest in existence, but it’ll be like staying at the Plaza compared to this place.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Jensen looks up to find Jared smiling and happy and so fucking earnest that it’s endearing and reminds him of his early days in this business. But there’s no point in daydreaming over that when they’ve got real work to get to. “Okay, here we go,” he says with a flourish of his hand over the table.

“What’s with all this?” Jared asks slowly.

“Everything you’ll ever touch on camera.” Jensen then ticks off the equipment, pointing at each piece: “We’ve got a static camera, thermal cam, mel meter, EVP, E _M_ P, EM _F_.” He’s about to keep going, but a quick glance up tells him Jared’s just staring at him and not any of the equipment. “REM pod, spectrum video,” he says with interest even while staring right back at Jared. “Infrared flood light.” He flicks his hands out between them. “I’m sorry, is this boring you?”

Jared shakes his head, so quickly he seems nervous, but then he smiles smoothly and pushes hair off his face. “No, not at all. It’s just … I’ve seen the show. I know what all this is. I’ve seen you use it a hundred times.”

“Okay, but Jared?” he asks. When Jared nods, Jensen sighs because he has no intention of dressing the kid down, but he’s starting to really question his decision-making skills. “ _You_ haven’t used it a hundred times. You’ve used it no times. So maybe you wanna take a look around and figure out how this shit works?”

Jared points at every piece Jensen had rattled off, in order. “Camera posted outside, camera to pick up warm spots, fancy name for thermometer, electronic voice recorder, electromagnetic pulse,” he says with a taunting edge and playful smile. “EVP recorder, radial electromagnetic antenna - I bet you didn’t think I’d know _that_ one - infrared cam and night light.”

Jensen does his best to not gawk or glare at Jared, but it’s pretty hard when Jared shoots him a toothy grin. The kid’s not so bad.

“Did I get ‘em all?”

He lifts one last item that neither of them has identified. It’s a little large for him to wrap his fingers around entirely, longer than the spread of his palm and fingers, with a blue screen and a handful of buttons along the side. “And how about this, hot shot?”

“Spirit box.”

Jensen nods with Jared. “You know how it works?”

Jared shuffles in place and puts his hands in his jeans pockets, looking all cool and calm. “It audibly and visually plays out EVPs. Ghost voices,” he adds with an excited smile.

Jensen licks his lips and shakes the spirit box in his hand. “That’s what it does. You know how it does that?”

“Well it just,” Jared stars slowly, waving towards it. “It takes EVP out of the air and gives it a voice. With like a ten-second delay,” he adds. 

Jensen’s unsure if Jared’s just impatient or trying to flirt. He’s uncertain which he would prefer right now. Shifting the box in his hand, Jensen points at its buttons and the screen as he talks. “It records EVP and plays it back. Dual microprocessors extract levels off the infrared channel and encode the levels with the voice processor.” He looks up to Jared with a tight, pert smile. “So, yeah, it has a bit of a delay, but it’s reading the fucking channel.”

Jared pulls back, bites the corner of his mouth with a dimple showing, and he suddenly seems like a kid who’s been put in his place. Jensen was aiming for that, but maybe with a little less testosterone.

“Look, my point is,” he starts, still firm yet a bit nicer than the last few minutes, “you can’t just wave a box in the air or point a camera in the corner. You have to know what it’s doing to understand what we’re reacting to.”

“Alright, yeah,” he waves off with a stilted laugh.

Jensen takes on a mocking tone to repeat, “‘Alright, yeah,’ what?”

Jared reverts back to the awkward fidgeting and unsteady voice that Jensen remembers from his audition and their phone call yesterday. “No, you’re right. I’m there filming you guys, and I should know what’s going on.” After a long moment, Jared looks a bit sad, and maybe guilty. “It’s just, I’ve watched every season, over and over, and I get what these things are, and I know cameras and all that. But I guess I should be a li’l less cocky that you chose me. I’m sorry, I apologize.”

With a frown, Jensen puts the spirit box down and leans forward with his hands on the table. “Jared, do you know how many people showed up to audition last week?”

“No, I don’t,” he mumbles.

“Approximate counts say 50,000. I’d say about ten percent just wanted to say hi.” Jensen shrugs it off easily. “Another ten to twenty percent are actors looking to get on TV in any way possible. That leaves seventy to eighty percent who are seriously in it to hunt ghosts and tape shit and get hardcore evidence that these things really exist.”

Jared visibly swallows and minutely nods his head as his eyes go just over Jensen’s shoulder.

Jensen motions at Jared. “And then there’s you. Some practical joke of a college kid who went to my alma mater and knows a thing or twenty about sound and cameras.” When Jared bites his lower lip, Jensen feels his stomach drop with guilt and he smiles a little. “You know that we had three dozen call backs last weekend? Almost forty people who everyone loved because they had attitude or experience or were the spitting image of Steve on a good day.”

The last few weeks have been a mess. Dealing with the outcry and speculation from the fans and scheduling auditions and weeding through 50,000 people in a week … well, it’s all worn Jensen down just in time to start filming.

“And in between all the auditions and call backs and applications, I called Austin and got a glowing - fucking _beaming_ \- review from Evans. All about how you’re a kid that don’t quit and your brain is like a 16-bit receiver, just,” and here Jensen loses his words and closes his eyes briefly while flicking his fingers at the side of his head. Then he laughs because it’s fucking ridiculous that he’s talking like this right now. “She says you’re a genius with sound boards and steady cams. She talked about you like she talked to me back then, and shit, how could I not give it a chance?”

By now, Jared has travelled a handful of emotions, finally landing on surprised. Jensen feels strange to have blurted that all out. He clears his throat and laughs a little as Jared stares at him in wonder. 

“So, really? I’m taking a chance on you because your college advisor thinks you’re a Mensa-level prodigy and you went to UT. Don’t fuck this up and make me look bad.”

That seems to shake Jared out of his spell and he coughs, wiping over his mouth. “No, of course not.”

“Learn the shit,” Jensen insists, pointing at the table before he turns to the now defunct door. As he steps into the hallway and pulls it shut, he stops for a second and smiles at Jared just to ease the tension. “When you’re done, pack all that back up how it came. It’s delicate equipment.”

“Yeah, of course,” Jared replies quickly.

“We don’t check equipment at the airport. It’s your carry-on, so be nice to it,” Jensen calls as he shuts the door.

* * *

“Finally,” Chris grumbles as he leans on the back of Jensen’s seat on the plane.

Jensen wants to agree, but when he lifts his head to look from under the bill of his hat, he spots Jared at the front of the plane. He smiles a little at Jared fighting his way down the aisle with the two equipment bags, plus a messenger bag that likely holds his own stuff.

The flight’s supposed to leave in twenty minutes, the airline is probably set to close the gate any second now, and Jared made it on even after whatever mess security must’ve been with all the cameras and detectors in those bags. Jensen snorts, imagining the guards inspecting and wiping down every single piece to ensure Jared wasn’t smuggling something in the spirit box.

“You’re just happy you’re still in the bet,” Jensen mumbles back at Chris. He stretches in his seat and pushes his head into the headrest to find a comfortable position. He hates early flights. Hell, he hates anything in the morning, but they need to get out to Sumner County by mid-afternoon to start filming B-roll and background scenes.

“We’re all still in the bet,” Chris argues.

Jensen snorts because he doesn’t really care, even if he’s got a square that says how long Jared’s going to keep things under wraps until he breaks - from the pressure of travelling every few days, lockdowns and overnight filming, and now their hazing.

“You think he’s gonna make it past Nashville?” Matt asks, leaning in near Chris. “I give him ‘til Penn State Penitentiary. That jail’s got some crazy shit jumping around inside.”

“Just ‘cause you couldn’t last through the juvenile center doesn’t mean it’s a hot zone,” Chris argues.

Jensen rolls his eyes and sighs. Matt and Chris get along well enough, ragging on each other mostly, but they’re usually split up on flights to save Jensen the hassle of listening to them bicker. Steve and Chris tended to stick together and kept things down, allowing Jensen sleep. This morning, neither Chris nor Matt wanted to be stuck with the new guy and they beat Jensen to their seats by just a second.

They’re still arguing over what location Matt actually lost his shit at - a Pittsburgh juvenile facility or a lodge in Oregon. Jensen sighs and rolls his eyes closed. “Alright, shut up, you two,” Jensen complains.

“Hey, guys,” Jared says breathlessly. He’s standing in the aisle and trying to haul the bags up into the overhead compartments, but there isn’t much space for anything this late into boarding.

Jensen grabs the airline magazine from the pouch on the seat in front of him and mindlessly flips through it. He’s just waiting for the plane to be set, the flight crew to give their spiel, and then he’s out like a light. Every time.

He’s distracted by Jared, though. A flight attendant bumps him as she passes then comes back and bumps him again, making him nearly drop everything he’s carrying. Jared looks rightfully scared and guilty about the short drop the bag made before he snatched it up, but there’s still no place to stow the stuff.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the stewardess saying firmly. “There’s no room left. You’re going to have to check the bags.”

“No, but see, these are really fragile,” Jared replies, hugging one of the bags to his chest. “There’s cameras and recording equipment in here and we can’t check them.”

“You have to check them at the gate,” she insists.

“No, we really can’t,” he trails off as he looks at Jensen.

Jensen stares back, tired and bored and only slightly amused at this whole situation. When they’d stuck Matt with this task on his first trip with them, he’d missed the flight entirely. Somehow, witnessing Jared all sweaty and frustrated – and _afraid_ \- with having to check the equipment isn’t as funny as Jensen had originally planned.

Chris and Matt chuckle as Jared twists about to find enough space to stow the bags. Jensen chuckles a little, too, because it’s a tiny bit funny, but then Jared frowns at him with wide eyes and Jensen shakes his head.

“Just do something with it, Jared” Jensen says tiredly. “They’re not gonna let you sit in the middle of the aisle holding onto it all.”

“But you said we don’t check equipment,” he says quietly.

Jensen gives him a blank stare. He did say that, and he’s not sure how to reply, but mostly he’s interested in watching how Jared works his way out of it.

Jared quickly turns to the front of the plane to snag the attendant and check the bags. While he’s gone, Jensen tucks the airline magazine back into seat ahead of him and sits back, looking out the window to watch the baggage guys dump their black bags onto the conveyor belt. Just then, Jared plops down into the seat next to him.

“You break it, you buy it,” Jensen tells him, watching the bags make their way into the belly of the plane.

“Like my doorknob?”

Jensen looks over and Jared’s smirking at him.

“Building management is replacing the full frame. At my expense. So thanks for that.”

Jensen just barely fights the smile, somehow enjoying Jared bitching at him and his attitude here. “Told you not to tell them.”

“And leave the place unlocked all week? You saw that building. I doubt it has much in the way of security.”

“Sorry about that.”

Jared snorts. “Yeah, right, you’re sorry.”

Jensen looks at him again and Jared’s still smiling oddly and it’s an interesting moment to see him like this. He’s playful and alluring, and very attractive. It’s not as though Jensen hadn’t noticed that before, but right now it’s meaning more than just a pretty face on a TV screw.

Instead of saying anything more, Jensen slides down in his seat and closes his eyes.

“So,” Jared says brightly, “I went through all the equipment last night and did you notice that on the EMP-”

Jensen shuts the window shade – hard - and glares at Jared for a second. “No talking before noon,” he mutters then shifts in his seat to get more comfortable.

“In what time zone?”

It’s a valid question, since they’ll be landing in Nashville around noon. Still, Jensen pulls his hat down over his face. “All of them.”

* * *

Away from the car rental counter, Jensen flips through his packet of materials for this episode. Jared fidgets next to him and when Jensen looks up, Jared clears his throat.

“So, what now?” Jared asks.

Jensen nods towards the counter where Matt and Chris are getting a Yukon to fit the four of them and all their equipment in the back. “Well, they’re getting a car,” he says dryly. He’d slept through the four-hour flight and he can still feel the cobwebs coating his brain. Not to mention that he thought the car rental counters made it pretty obvious.

“And then?”

“Then we drive,” Jensen answers idly, flipping pages to refresh his memory on the place and its incidents. “About forty-five minutes, in case that’s your next question.”

“I was just wondering.”

Jensen nods at Matt when the guys are done at the counter and heading off the side to exit and get the vehicle. He grabs his things and shuffles off in that direction with Jared following. “Well, you can wonder once I’ve had coffee.”

“Could’ve gotten some upstairs.”

“Yeah, I could have,” he replies, laughing lightly. He realize he’s being short, and maybe it’s partly on purpose because he’s used to this routine: flying into a new town, standing around and waiting for cars, Matt handling car rentals and driving them around. Jensen pats Jared’s shoulder and nudges him to keep up. “Just wait ‘til we’re on the road and then you can ask all you want.”

Jared nods happily and Jensen does so in return. 

Once they’re on the highway, Chris brings out his camcorder and turns in the front passenger seat, filming everything - the road, Matt driving, Jared and Jensen in the backseat. He turns on the smug factor, and Jensen knows he’s about to start taunting Jared just for being the new guy and because they never manage to let a joke sit. 

“You ready for the first day of school?” Chris asks with the camera right on Jared. 

He shifts in his seat and smiles, his eyes getting bright. “Yeah. I sure am.”

“You ever seen a ghost before Jared?”

“No, I haven’t. But I’ve heard a few things.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

Jared clears his throat, glancing at Jensen, and that makes Jensen stop reading and watch as Jared looks between the camera and out the front window. “There’s this drug store back home that my friend worked at during college. People used to hear things in the stock room, mostly after dark, and sometimes they’d come in the next day and find things knocked over on shelves or even re-shelved somewhere else.” He shoots a quick look at Jensen, but Jensen just stares back, which seems to make Jared a bit more uncomfortable. “So, she let me in at the end of her shift and I hung around and set up a few cameras. I heard the noises, too, but didn’t see anything.”

Matt laughs from the driver’s seat. “There goes all your credibility, man.”

“Well, with my own eyes,” Jared quickly argues, leaning towards the front seat. “I got some stuff on camera. Things knocked over in the pharmacy.”

“Sounds so spooky,” Chris says in a leading, mocking tone.

Jared is instantly deflated and he sits back in his seat. He nervously checks Jensen, then shifts towards the window as he grabs at the knees of his jeans and bites the inside of his mouth.

Once Chris turns his camera on Matt and they start rattling on about where they’re heading, Jensen taps Jared’s leg. “What was the story with the store?”

With surprise, Jared takes a few seconds to respond then chuckles, seeming embarrassed. “Um, well, they say the pharmacist gave this girl the wrong prescription and she died from an allergic reaction. So they think she haunts the place.”

Jensen’s not sure it’s the most scandalous ghost story he’s ever heard - he’s actually really sure it’s one of the most watered-down he’s ever heard and he starts laughing. When he pats Jared’s leg again and mumbles, “Baby’s first ghost hunt,” Jared chuckles with him. 

“I know it’s not very exciting.”

“Not at all,” Jensen nods in agreement, appreciating that Jared is calming down, loosening right up. “You couldn’t find something at school to follow?”

“There were stories about lecture halls and stuff, but it’s hard getting in after hours.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

Jared slides a bit closer on the bench and points at the file in Jensen’s lap. “So, what’re we looking at today?”

Jensen passes him a few pieces of paper and figures the least he can do is clue Jared into a few facts. It’s not like he has to keep him in the dark the whole time, even if it would add to the hazing ritual. That’s more Chris and Matt’s area anyway.

“Cragfont Mansion. It was run by a family, the Winchesters, and watched by the wife while the husband and son were off in the war. Union soldiers vandalized the home, tore it apart, and some claim they had their way with the wife. So now there’re reports of her hanging around, some soldiers, maybe even the husband, George.”

Jared brightens as he reads through the web print outs. “I love Civil War stories. They’re always so creepy.”

Jensen has to admit that he’s beginning to be impressed by how Jared’s trying to fit in with them and that he’s truly interested in all this. “Yeah, I guess they are.” He bumps Jared’s shoulder for attention. “We’re gonna get into town and just do some coasting around, film a few random things, and do some set ups. Tomorrow’s the interviews with the house staff and then the lockdown. For today, just trail along and tape whatever we’re doing. We can talk more tonight about what to do tomorrow.”

“So, no more pranks?”

He narrows his eyes and is ready to deny it, but Jared’s smirking. “Too obvious?”

“I told you I’ve seen the show a lot. I saw how Matt was picked on when he started.”

Jensen nods, remembering how bad they got on Matt two years ago when he joined. It was quite a few years after Jensen, Chris, and Steve had started their whole get-up at the tail-end of college, and Matt was more wet behind the ears than Jared. They tormented him for a good few weeks. Even if Jensen feels himself warming up to Jared already, there’s no way Matt and Chris will take it easy.

“It’s your first day, Jared,” Jensen says idly, looking at his file again. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”

* * *

They run around Castalian Springs, filming the slow crawl of the small town while Jensen talks about the area’s history during the Civil War. They even make a stop at the Castalian Springs Mound Site and he shares bits he’d found online about the history from two centuries ago, sprinkled with stories of Bledsoe's Station, an 18th-century frontier fort.

It’s relatively easy and like any other time they’ve done setups for an episode. Matt carries some of the equipment and hangs back while Jared and Chris tape Jensen, and then they re-film from different angles with Jensen remixing how he tells the stories, trying to amp everything up for the most dramatic effect possible.

Jared keeps up with it all. He mans the camera like he’s been with them all this time, and Jensen is surprised by _being_ surprised with how quickly he follows Jensen when he moves or motions to different parts of the landscape.

At one point, Jared does lag while he messes with the camera. Jensen smiles tightly. “Jared, you with us?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he says quickly and aims the camera up again. “I’m getting some glare from the sun and it’s unfocused.”

Matt and Chris are staring at Jared, and Jensen clears his throat to get them back on topic. That Jared knows what he’s doing shouldn’t be shocking - it’s why Jensen rallied for Jared to fill this role. Jensen still tries to shake the odd feeling away and waits for Jared to set.

* * *

Back at the motel a few towns over, they all settle into their own rooms. Jensen takes the time to shower and dress down in jeans and a tee before they get together for a late dinner at the restaurant just down the block. As always, they spend the meal talking about tomorrow. Names and places are thrown around, dates of past reports of activity, spots in the mansion they want to cover, just planning their whole attack for the next day.

Jared seems to settle in enough, though he doesn’t openly talk a whole lot. He mostly watches, laughs with the group when he gets what they’re talking about, and nods when they’re saying something important related to filming. 

On the way back, Matt and Chris walk ahead, rambling on about some horror flick that came out a month ago, and Jared falls into step beside Jensen.

“You hanging in there?” Jensen asks when they reach the walkway to their rooms, at a loss for what to say. 

“Yeah,” he answers quickly. “It still feels really big, but I’m trying to relax and not screw up.”

Jensen nods and waves at Matt and Chris when they head into their rooms. “You know, this is our show. We’re gonna give you shit, but we’re not gonna let you mess it up.”

Jared releases a long breath and bites his lip like he’s trying to stop a smile. “Yeah, of course. It’s still kinda nerve wracking. I’ve been watching you guys for a few years and now I’m standing here talking to you.”

He chuckles and pulls out his key, unlocking his door. “I’m sure you’ll get over it.”

“I hope so,” Jared mumbles.

Jensen steps into the doorway and nods to Jared. “Go get some sleep. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.”

“Like today wasn’t?” he laughs awkwardly.

“ _Bigger_ day. Now sleep.”

“Yeah, alright.”

Jensen changes into shorts and settles into bed, flipping through the few channels the motel offers. He feels antsy and has trouble sleeping, but he blames it on the fact that they’re filming the first episode of the new season, not because Jared’s in Steve’s place now.

* * *

Stephanie Farmer, a middle aged woman in slacks and a button-up, meets them halfway down the walk and shakes hands with all four while smiling easily.

Jared and Chris are already taping and Jensen thanks her for letting them come by. They stand outside the mansion and discuss its history, ranging from the beginnings of a log cabin built by James and George Winchester in 1785 to James moving forward with full stone construction of the manor in 1802, and through the long line of owners until 1958 when the state purchased the land for historical preservation. 

“And how long have you been here?” Jensen asks.

“About nine years,” she replies. 

“And now it’s just for tours and events, right?”

“Correct. The galleries have been set for about two decades with pictures of the family as well as American Federal pieces, including some of the Winchesters’ own.”

Jensen crosses his arms as he leans towards her, all playful charm. “And have you ever seen anything in the galleries?”

She chuckles nervously and nods. “Not exactly. But in the north gallery there are some pieces that don’t really like to stay put.”

“Like what?”

From the corner of his eye, Jensen sees Jared move in and focus his camera closer to Stephanie as she speaks. He smiles at Jared then tunes into Stephanie.

“Well, there are a few guns on a shelf that don’t always stay on that shelf. One afternoon, I found one sitting on the case below it where there are pictures of some of the Confederate soldiers. George fought for the Confederates,” she adds quickly. “And bullets that go with that gun. I’d had a tour earlier that day so I figured someone had been fiddling with it, so then I put it back. But at the end of the night, when we were clearing everything up, it was back on the case and we hadn’t had anyone else in that gallery.”

Jensen looks to Chris’s camera and flicks his eyebrows up. “Sounds only a little spooky.”

“And there are footsteps on the second floor,” she says quickly. “You can hear them during some of the tours, even though those rooms are roped off.”

“Do the tours go upstairs?”

She nods and glances up towards the second floor, pointing at a window. “They do, to show off the bedrooms, but there are half doors to keep people out. The bedrooms have been restored with what was left in the house and what the records say for that time. That one was George and Malvina’s room. She hid in there when the Union soldiers came through, so some think that she’s still up there.”

Jensen tips his head and aims a smooth smile at her. “Can we go up there?”

“Of course,” she nods and then motions them inside.

In the north foyer, she points out the gun that seems to move on its own and talks about a former tour guide who’d claimed to see things later in the evenings when she closed up.

“And when she was done in here, she turned and said she saw a man walking into the south gallery.”

“What did he look like?” Jensen asks.

“It was already getting dark, so she only saw a shadow, just an outline of a man in a long coat with his hand at his side. She said it looked like a man holding his gun in his belt.”

“Like a solider?”

“That’s what she said.”

“Have you seen him?” Jensen asks with interest.

She shakes her head and slightly frowns. “I have not. But others have said he roams these galleries. They think he’s the one grabbing the gun off the shelf.”

They roam the home and get more stories of things showing up out of place and noises heard throughout. As they move, Jensen takes the time to look at the cameras, somehow finding Jared more often, and talking about places they’ll film that night. Every time he looks up, Jared’s smiling and pink-cheeked. Jensen has to keep himself on task, remembering they’re here for a job and not just some goofy experiment with a new kid in tow.

Jared can’t stop shaking. His knees and his fingers are jittery, which makes readying the camera hard as hell. He makes excuses for it. It’s dark, past midnight; this has nothing to do with it being the beginning of the lockdown.

The stories Stephanie had told them and the ones he’d read in the papers Jensen shared the day before aren’t anything too exciting, but now that it’s pitch black in front of the mansion and they’re ready to go inside without any light except for the night vision cameras and a few flashlights. He can’t help but feel his heart race.

Once all equipment is in place and they’re back outside to start taping the beginning of the lockdown, Matt fires up the truck and backs out of the gravel lane.

Jared turns to watch the vehicle coast back from where they’d come in, and he makes a strange noise that grabs everyone’s attention. He knows the show inside and out, but actually seeing Matt leave, knowing they’re left on their own for the lockdown, is suddenly unnerving. 

Chris laughs, low yet obviously mocking. “Are you worried it’s just us three?”

“No, of course not,” Jared replies instantly. He knows Matt often shows up during studio time, not much during the hunts, so he tries to remind himself this is all normal. 

Chris tsks. “I think Jared’s a little scared.”

“Let’s get back to this, okay?” Jensen asks with a roll of his eyes. Chris grumbles and Jared nods when Jensen looks at him. “Just keep the camera running, stay with us, and if you hear or see anything, zoom in on that. It’ll all come pretty easily once we’re moving. You know how we roll.”

Jared nods quickly, the pep talk doing wonders for his immediate anxiety. “Yeah, sure.”

Once they’re ready, the technical part of him is on autopilot. He films Jensen as he does his spiel about what people see and hear inside the Cragfont Mansion, as he banters with Chris, and when he points out Stephanie beside him, who’s prepared the lock them in until sun up. 

With a deep breath, Jared follows Jensen and Chris inside and keeps taping as Jensen talks through all that they’re about to film. There’s a strange disconnect; he knows he’s walking along these dark hallways. Yet, he’s also watching through the LCD screen so he can see in the dark and make sure he’s framing Jensen well. The view reminds him of nights in his room with all the lights out and watching the show from the edge of his bed. This is totally different, he knows that, and he tries to force himself to pay better attention and follow.

At the base of the stairs leading to the second floor, Jensen’s relaying the story of Union soldiers breaking into the home, tearing it up, and Malvina hiding in the master bedroom. 

“They say voices and sounds are heard up there, as if she’s still hiding,” Jensen says seriously, just like all the other episodes Jared’s watched. “We’re going to head up there and see if we can catch anything. These EVP recorders,” he says, motioning with his, “Are running, so if there is anyone here who wants to speak to us, we’ll get it on tape.”

Carefully, they make their way up the stairs, then there’s a soft knock above them.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jensen whispers, stopping midway up the stairs. “You hear that?”

“Yeah, I heard knocking,” Chris says quietly. 

“Is someone up there?” Jensen calls out. 

They wait for any response and when there isn’t one, they continue up the stairs only to stop because of another quick knock from the direction of the master bedroom. 

“Hello?” Jensen asks. “Malvina? Is that you?”

Jared’s pulse pounds in his neck, hearing something so soon into the lockdown, and he tries hear beyond the rushing noise in his ears. He doesn’t hear more, but Jensen and Chris seem to, getting excited and quietly talking. 

“Oh my God,” Jensen whispers. “Did you hear that? It was a woman’s voice.”

“Yeah, I heard that,” Chris replies. “Totally a woman’s voice.”

“There it is again!”

Jared takes another step or two and tries to listen, but all he can hear is their soft breathing. He aims his camera around the side of the stairwell and down the hall as Jensen slowly walks to the bedroom. 

“Malvina, if you can hear me,” Jensen says, “We’re not here to hurt you. We know you were attacked in your own home.”

There’s another round of knocks when Jensen gets to the doorway, like something knocking hard on glass, and Jared comes up behind him to film inside the room. Little has changed from their earlier tour of the place, just the same plain bed, desk, and dresser. The only difference Jared can spot is a brush and hand mirror set on the desk when there was nothing there before. 

He finds it hard to breathe, thinking of someone taking those items out of the desk drawer and putting them there, that maybe the glass sound was the brush hitting the mirror when the items were put down together. 

Jensen roams the room and keeps talking, trying to speak to Malvina and film it all on his own camcorder. He opens the closet door and looks inside the empty space. “I know you hid in here to avoid the soldiers. You’re safe now. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re not the soldiers.”

Then there’re muffled hard-soled footsteps and Jared turns to the hallway. He thinks he heard them on the stairs, down near the first floor. “What was that?” he mumbles.

“I heard footsteps downstairs,” Chris says quickly, looking at Jared. 

“Did you hear them?” Jensen asks.

“Yeah, I did,” Jared replies, heart racing faster than before. “There were footsteps going down the stairs.”

A few more steps sound off below them on the hardwood floor and Jared holds his breath. 

“Okay, Jared?” Jensen asks quickly. “You go downstairs and see what’s down there.”

Jared swings his camera to Jensen and stares. It’s not like he didn’t know this is what happens - splitting up and getting anything they can on tape - but he’s not sure he’s ready to do it this soon into the lockdown. “Really?” he asks softly.

“Maybe it’s that soldier,” Chris says. “With the guns in the gallery.”

Jensen smiles and nods. “Yeah, go on down there. Go downstairs and tape, try to talk to him.”

Jared has visions of a spirit circling him in the galleries, following him around and taunting him by whispering in his ear. He shivers and takes a deep breath. This is what he signed up for, what he’s fascinated by, and what he’s now paid to do. “Alright, okay,” he whispers and makes his way back downstairs.

He slowly walks through the foyer and aims his camera around the place to see if there’s anything else off from what he remembers earlier that day. He walks into the north gallery and tries to ignore the unsettling noises of Jensen and Chris walking above him; he has to keep reminding himself those are _normal_ sounds and he should focus on what’s happening on this floor. 

There’s a soft shuffling noise from deep in the gallery and he does his best to not totally freak out. Level breathing helps to calm him for the moment. “Is someone there?” he asks loudly. “Can you hear me?”

This time, there’s a knock to his left and when he swings the camera in that direction, there’s nothing there aside from another antique case and pictures on the wall. One of the portraits is of George Winchester dressed in his Confederate uniform, tired and sunken eyes, and a rough beard covering the lower half of his face. Jared feels a chill run down his back as he thinks of that man standing in this room with him. 

“George, is that you? Are you here?”

Another knock and Jared has to close his eyes for a second and get his bearings. He adjusts his hold on his EVP recorder and puts it out before him, thinking of all the things he’s seen this on the episodes before. 

“Talk into this here, talk to the red light.” He walks closer to the portrait, keeping the lens trained to it. “Are you still here to protect the house? From when the Union came in while your wife was upstairs?”

Jared hears a low murmur behind him and he spins around to find a gun on the glass case instead of in its spot on the shelf above. It’s the very gun Stephanie had pointed out to them hours earlier. “Oh, shit,” he whispers, breathing heavily and unable to stop it.

“Okay, so you’re here,” he laughs a little. “George, why are you still here? Are you protecting the house so no more soldiers return? Are you here to stay with your wife?”

He stands in place, solid and unmoving except for a tiny shake of the camera and recorder in his hands. He couldn’t move his feet if he tried. A tense silence follows and he combs the room to record the empty gallery. 

Talking himself down, he relaxes long enough to think through what to do next. He’s not about to call up to Jensen and Chris to ask them what he should do - it’ll make him seem scared (even if he kind of is) not to mention unprofessional to get that on tape. He brings the recorder closer and rewinds it to play back. 

The recording is a bit fuzzy because of how high it’s turned up to catch whatever it can. He hears himself ask questions, hears a few of the knocks and footsteps he’d heard himself, and then there’s a small blip in the tape and a gravelly voice answering his questions. 

_No more soldiers_.

Jared clears his throat and closes his eyes as the tape continues with more unintelligible grumbling in reply. 

Quick footsteps to his right make him spin and he catches Jensen in his frame. Jared sighs in relief. 

“Hey, did you find anything?” Jensen asks.

Jared waves the recorder. “Yeah, I got an EVP of a man’s voice.”

“What’d he say?”

“No more soldiers,” Jared says nervously. “I was asking if he was here because of the Union attacks and he said no more soldiers.”

Jensen grins, and in the green tint of the night vision it’s a tad bit creepy, yet all sorts of satisfying.

* * *

In the morning, Jared can’t deny he’s glad to get out of Cragfont, even if the dawning sun is blinding after spending hours in the dark.

Matt meets them with the Yukon, grinning from the driver’s seat. “You guys get anything good?”

Chris smacks Jared’s back hard enough to push him forward a few steps. “Our li’l boy got himself some EVP.”

Matt laughs. “Not bad for your first slumber party.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Jared, forcing the good feelings. He then follows Jensen around the SUV to where he’s loading things into the back.

“God, I’m starving,” Jensen mumbles.

“I could use some sleep.”

“In due time, Jared.” Jensen smiles at him then pulls an equipment bag off Jared’s shoulder. “But food first, then the airport. You can sleep on the plane.”

Jared groans as he thinks about their flight right back to L.A., and how unlikely it is he’ll sleep all that well. At least they’re done with this mansion; even in the daylight, the place seems daunting. In his mind, he can still see the portrait of grizzly George Winchester staring at him when the man talked to him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t hear it in real time, the tape proves there was something there and he can feel his knees lock up in memory of that tense moment. 

Jensen hits Jared’s shoulder, making him flinch back to the here and now. Jensen’s smiling at him and it’s a small comfort. “Let’s head out before George hitches a ride with us.”

Jared moans. “Not funny.”

* * *

When Jared gets back to his apartment, he dumps his overnight bag on the small kitchenette table, thankful the guys had taken the equipment with them back to the studio. The place looks tinier than he remembers from just a few days ago, but at least his door’s been fixed. There’s an invoice on the kitchen counter, yet he can’t manage to care too much at the moment.

He’s exhausted after being unable to sleep much on the plane no matter how quiet the flight had been. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw George Winchester’s face, and the few times he’d started to fall asleep, he could hear the grumbled response from the EVP. 

He strips down to his undershirt and boxers and slips into bed. He texts his mom that he’s back in L.A. and still alive then smiles at her thankful reply. He figures he’ll call her later or the next day to tell her all about it. He probably owes Chad a call, too, or at least an email. Instead, he turns the TV on low, something innocent like a woman’s daytime talk show, and turns over to sleep. To overpower that image of George Winchester, he recalls Jensen’s bright, happy grin on his camera when he’d told him he recorded an EVP.

That helps him rest, though he tosses and turns on occasion and curses how thin the curtains over his one window are, letting in too much sunlight. The next two days pass just the same, napping then waking and napping and staying up to watch criminally bad, late-night TV. He’s uncertain when he’ll get used to staying up all night for work and then surviving back in L.A. without a strict schedule. 

At some point when he’s back asleep, his phone rings with Jensen on the other end.

Jared rubs his eyes and sees it’s nearly eight at night. He realizes that they have to film the summarization, the A/V studio bits to go over all that they taped at the mansion. When Jensen had mentioned it, Jared had thought they meant much later, or even that he wasn’t needed. But Jensen sounds concerned, slightly annoyed, that Jared isn’t up and ready.

“Nah, I’ll be out in a minute,” Jared insists and jumps out of bed to throw on jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.

Jensen’s in front of the building in a sleek sedan. It instantly makes Jared feel insecure to have come up here without a car, and with only a hand-me-down waiting for him back in Austin. He tries to smile, knowing that in a few weeks, he can get his own car and somewhere down the line, with him working on the show, he can have something as nice as this. Everything’s about to change and despite the freaky moments at the Cragfont Mansion, he still has the want to pinch himself that this is his new life. Getting into Jensen Ackles’s car and heading out to record in the studio is a nice follow-up to the last few days.

Jensen gives him a short look before putting the car into drive and pulling out. “You sleep okay? I know the schedule’s kinda crazy. A few days on then off, but we have to fit it all in where we can.”

“No, yeah, I get it,” Jared insists, watching Jensen as he drives. He still can’t believe he’s sitting next to Jensen Ackles and having conversations with him about work. “I mean, not great sleep, but I’ll readjust. Hopefully.”

Jensen chuckles. “And if not, your sleep deprivation may help our ratings.”

He thinks through the fact that there’s a cult following online, but in the grand scheme of things, the show’s probably not all that popular. “Are the ratings bad?”

“Not bad, no. But it’d be nice to build more after a few years. The producers and the network’s always looking for more.”

Jared looks forward, watching Jensen speed down the dark streets, heading toward the studio where he’d interviewed a week ago. He reminds himself he’s now on a TV show that has to perform and not just living out a wish of chasing ghost stories across the country.

“You okay, there?” Jensen asks, shaking Jared from his thoughts. “Old George really get to you?”

“No, I’m good,” Jared insists. He tries to match Jensen’s smile, but he knows it’s off. 

“If you say so.” Jensen takes a quick right turn and pulls into the parking lot beside the studio. When they’re both walking up to the building, Jensen nods at him. “So, I’m gonna keep assuming you know what’s going on because you’re such a rabid fan. But you get what we’re doing now, right?”

“Yeah,” Jared nods, smiling for real. “We’re recounting all the audio and videotape, and then you guys go over everything.”

“ _We_ go over everything. You, too, now.” Before they go inside, Jensen takes a moment to look at Jared. “You seem kinda spooked. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“We’re gonna go over the stuff you did in the galleries.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Jared says with another nod. 

Jensen nods with him and smirks. “You did great out there. It all seemed real natural. Just respond the same way here.”

Jared anticipates chills and shivers when they replay all the footage and recordings, so natural won’t really be a problem.

* * *

Matt already has footage cued up on the four different flat screens that make up his work station. Jensen and Chris rattle on about what they remember hearing or seeing at key points of the lockdown, and Matt points out the recordings that match. Jared just stares, shocked by not only the sudden realization that he’s been watching this scenario play out for years on his own TV yet is here right now, but that he’s present to hear and see all the nuances of spirit tracking that he hadn’t recognized when they were in the Cragfont.

Jensen points out a mist developing on the footage filmed in the front lobby of the mansion. Jared remembers standing next to Jensen as it all happened and to now consider that the figure formed less than a dozen feet in front of him without him being aware … well, his tense, freaked-out reaction is one hundred percent natural now.

“Then Jared's recordings in the gallery," Matt says as he fires up the film from Jared's camera. 

Jared recognizes the sound waves displayed on the screen next to his footage as ones he’s seen on every episode before this. He's jittery to hear what else was captured on the EVP, and then he gasps as he sees a glowing orb float across the screen and into the framed portrait of George Winchester. It's the very picture Jared had filmed when he heard the knocks, when he asked George if he was with him in that room. Seconds later, he'd heard more knocking and then taped the questions with the EVP.

He steps closer to the monitors as Matt replays it over and over and Jensen explains to Chris's camera that they've ruled the orb out as dust because dust particles tend to form in more of a misty, scattered pattern.

"Whereas this light drops quickly from the right side of the screen and fades to the left, directly into the portrait," Jensen explains. He even steps up to the console and traces the orb’s movement with his finger then turns and smiles at Jared.

Jared struggles with the right words, something that will make him seem cool on camera while still portraying the pure shock coursing his body. He settles on a simple, quiet, “So, he was really there.”

“Looks that way,” Matt agrees with a nod. 

“Let’s check out Jared’s EVP,” Jensen says, directing everyone’s attentions back to the monitors. 

They listen intently to Jared’s questions then the muffled _no more soldiers_ Jared had replayed in the gallery. He’s ready to make some comment on it, but Matt points at the cluster of new wavelengths at the tail end of the screen. 

“And then they keep talking here,” Matt says as the sound continues and there are two distinct, snarly voices. One says _get out_ while another states _they all die_.

“What the fuck?” Jared mumbles, eyes fixed on the area of the screen where the EVPs are shown. 

“Whoa!” Chris yells, nearly laughing. He’s obviously surprised to hear that part of the recording as well. “Play it again!”

Matt does and Jared has to ask, “Who all dies?”

“They probably mean the solders,” Chris answers with Jensen nodding as well. 

“So not us?” When the three of them look at him, Jared feels foolish to have asked, but what’s he supposed to do right now? He’s facing footage that says George Winchester was standing in front of him with God only knows who else. He thinks his paranoid is justified.

Jensen spins in place and grins at Jared. “You were asking about the soldiers and Good Ole George answered you!”

Jared shivers at the thought then tries to focus more on Jensen’s bright smile. Maybe that’ll help overcome the gnawing panic that he’ll forever hear the EVP on repeat when he tries to sleep.

A month in and Jensen has to admit Jared has caught on quick. He masters the equipment, plays up the appropriate reactions onscreen during their hunts, and calms down from the nervous excitement he’d been carrying in those early days.

Better yet, he’s taken to asking Jensen worthwhile questions while they’re working, like he’s not just keeping up, but wants to fly with the rest of the crew. And he’s grasped the way each of the guys is comfortable travelling.

Like right now, without a word, Jared passes a tall, covered cup of coffee to Jensen as the two of them wait for Chris and Matt to take handle the rental car. 

Jensen glances up and just barely manages not to smile as he glances at the cup, Jared’s hand on it, then the easy way Jared’s looking right back at him. Jared is continually friendly, open, and armed with a loose smile that deepens his dimples. It all means Jensen has lost use of his words, a bit transfixed by that look.

Jared wiggles the cup and Jensen clears his throat, shakes his head, and finally takes the coffee. Jared’s smile turns warm, and Jensen hides any reaction behind the lip of the cover as he watches Matt and Chris at the rental counter right near the exit they’ll take shortly. 

For the next five minutes, Jensen drinks coffee and sneaks glances at Jared, who’s still looking amused while watching the Matt and Chris and nodding his head to whatever music is playing through his ear buds.

It’s amazing that Jared is this easy when they’re about to spend six hours locked up in Waverly Hills, a mental hospital that’s been shut down since the 1980s. It’s still hilarious, though, that little twitches sometimes make Jared jump, like Jensen’s cell phone ringing from his front pocket right now.

Jared rips his ear buds out in shock and Jensen mumbles, “Easy there, boy,” as he pulls his phone out.

“I’m fine,” Jared insists. Then proves himself wrong when Matt slaps his back, making him stumble a few steps with a sharp yelp.

“Yeah, you’re just perfect,” Jensen laughs, following the guys outside and half listening to the groundskeeper giving him instructions for their morning meeting.

Jensen and Jared hop into the back seats of their rented SUV and as Jensen pulls out his file on Waverly Hills, Jared shuffles across the bench seat, right up against Jensen, and reads over his shoulder. He’s been doing this more often lately and Jensen realizes a few seconds later that he doesn’t even shrug him off anymore. 

“How do you think the ghosts get up that hill?” Jared asks.

Jensen glances at him and starts to smile at Jared’s playfully naïve expression. “You’re an idiot.”

Jared nudges his shoulder to Jensen’s and chuckles. “You don’t think I’m serious?”

“I sure hope,” Jensen begins slowly, going back to his reading, “that you’ve learned more than corny ass jokes since you’ve been here.”

“You tell me, Teach.”

“I’d like to think I’m more of a professor.”

Jared nods and hums seriously. “Of the paranormal, of course. You know, given your superior expertise, you could certainly qualify for a PhD.”

Jensen smirks. “That’s more like it.”

“Sexiest doctor on television.”

He stares at Jared and finally huffs when Jared waggles his eyebrows. “Would you stop it?” Jensen asks. For all that he’s growing to enjoy Jared’s goofiness, appreciates how comfortable Jared now is with their crew, he’d like to focus on his file right now. Not on how much his mind roams where Jared is concerned.

“Stop calling you sexy?” Jared jokes.

“Stop talking. Period.”

Jared mocks zipping his lips and leans back against the seat.

* * *

The grounds of the asylum are like any they’ve seen before. Overgrown, dusty grass leads to crumbling 100-year-old masonry that gives the sure sign that the place has been abandoned and is only a faraway memory for those who had once been here.

Jensen happily accepts the hand of Robert Townes, the 50-something-year-old groundskeeper he’d talked to just forty minutes before. Matt and Chris join them to ask all of their typical questions about the place, discuss where they’ll film, what stories they’ll cover, and all the same bullshit they fly through on every case. 

Jared’s standing off to the side and staring up at the building, pensive with his eyes narrowed. It’s jarring compared to how loose he was in the ride over.

“Jared!” Jensen calls out, and obviously scares him as Jared flinches. Jensen widens his eyes and lifts his eyebrows, confused and surprised. “You ready to work, kid?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.”

Jensen continues to check Jared while they’re all talking with Robert and setting up their first shot right in front of the asylum’s weathered front entrance. As Matt and Chris head off with the groundskeeper to view a few more areas around the corner, Jensen stares at Jared until Jared turns away from the building to look at him. 

“What?” Jared asks. He seems to snap out of whatever weird thing he’s been in for the last twenty minutes and glances around them. “Where’re the others?”

He wants to snap at Jared, but that won’t get them anywhere. Jared’s been doing a good job, better than anyone had expected – especially Matt and Chris. Still, Jensen lets out a bit of attitude by slowly saying, “They’re _working_. You up for doing that today?”

Jared stands tall and rolls his shoulders. “Of course I am.”

Jensen points at the building. “Then what was with that? Are the walls talking, Jared?” he mocks lightly.

Laughing at himself, Jared runs a hand through his hair and walks in the direction everyone else had gone. “No, they’re not talking. I’m not hearing voices – yet!” he adds with a grin. “The place is just a little creepy, you know?”

Jensen slaps Jared on the back. “Wait ‘til you see it in the dark.”

* * *

“You ready?” Chris yells from across the lawn.

Jensen shuffles into place in front of the entrance of the main building. He settles his feet comfortably and tucks his hands into his jacket pockets, feeling a short chill run up his arms. It’s not all too cold out here, but he can’t stop the shiver up the back of his neck. 

“Jared, you set?” Jensen asks. He glances to his left where Jared’s standing about twenty feet away, camera on his shoulder and nodding. And smiling. The kid’s always smiling. “Alright, let’s do this. Three, two …”

“Go!” Chris shouts then slowly walks towards them. 

“Here we are in Louisville, Kentucky,” Jensen says gravely. “At Waverly Hills Sanatorium, which opened in 1910. Tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions in the 1920’s and with the hospital overcrowded, patients were doubled up in their rooms and into the hallways, awaiting experimental treatments that often left them dead. Staff removed ribs and chest muscles, used ultraviolet exposure. The doctors tried it all then sent the dead down a _body chute_ , or a motorized rail and cable system that led out of the hospital to vehicles that carried the bodies away.”

Jensen walks to his left, watching as Jared and Chris both follow. He gestures at the faded bricks of the building and continues on through the history, counting off numbers of patients and subsequent deaths, often the result of flaring patient tempers and the overcrowding. They head inside and walk through the musty halls as Jensen continues.

“In 1961, the sanatorium closed, only to open a year later as a geriatrics center and mental institution. Like many other institutions across the country, Waverly Hills had its share of patient abuse, including extensive, horrific electroshock therapy that left many deaf, blind, or dead. The institution was open for only twenty years before the state closed the doors, but the terrors didn’t stop there. Countless tours have walked these halls, and numerous visitors have seen things, heard noises, and even experienced one-on-one encounters with Waverly Hills’s ghosts.”

He stops outside a medical room with a dingy sink in the corner, a mangled stretcher on one wall, and a handful of metal filing cabinets lined up along the other with its drawers bent open. 

“What will we find tonight? Who will we talk to?”

* * *

“Here we are in Room 502,” Jensen says firmly. He steps further into the cleared room, which is much like the rest of the hallway. The newest owners are renovating the place as a haunted bed and breakfast so the walls are dusty from resurfacing, tarps are laid out across the floor, and the lighting and utilities are all bare within open walls.

“Legend has it that the head nurse was so taunted by the truly deviant patients in this ward that she came in here, wrapped a rope around the pipes, and hanged herself.”

Jensen keeps his eyes right on the lens of Jared’s camera. Jared wisely follows Jensen’s gestures around the room, up towards the electrical fixtures above, and even to the window as Jensen explains that people have claimed to see the middle-aged nurse in the glass. All the while, Chris is to the right, constantly filming Jensen and their interviewee.

“Now, Brian,” Jensen says, turning to the construction worker they’d contacted when Robert shared a story earlier this morning. “You had a run-in with the woman in Room 502, did you not?”

Brian, a gruff, built guy in his 30s in a thick, flannel jacket, nods. “That I did.”

“And what happened on that day?”

“We were in here remodeling, and I was up on a ladder, checking the lights when I heard someone – a woman – whispering.”

Jensen steps closer and nods, interested yet also signaling Chris to zoom in closer on Brian as well. “What did she say?”

“She told me to get out or else.”

Jensen widens his stance and crosses his arms, getting his _serious_ face on. “Or else what?”

“She didn’t say, but the next week, I was back in here working, and a pipe fell from the ceiling. It smacked me in the head and cut my scalp open. I had to get eight stitches.” 

Brian spins around and Jared gets closer to film the line across the fullness of his skull that’s now a muddled pink as it’s healed.

“That’s a pretty nasty or else,” Jensen remarks slyly and he smirks when Jared swings his camera to him. “Jared, you ready to find out some other _or else_ situations here?”

“No, c’mon,” Jared complains.

“I think you’re due, boy,” Chris drawls, turning his camera on Jared. 

Jensen chuckles as Jared groans, and pulls out his EVP while looking right into Jared’s camera. “We’re going to tape a spontaneous EVP right now. This here,” he says, pointing at his small audio piece, “Will record voices the human ear can’t pick up.”

He holds it out in the air and slowly roams the room. “Is there anyone here right now with us?” After a few silent seconds, he asks, “Did you hurt this man here? Did you warn him to leave then hit him in the head?”

“I heard something!” Chris says in a rush. 

“A hiss,” Jensen prompts.

“Yeah, like a drawn out yes.”

“I heard that!” Jensen insists.

“Oh, my God,” Jared says quickly. “She’s really here?”

“Are you hurting people in this room?” Jensen asks the room, patiently waiting for a response. “Why are you still here?”

“What happened to you?” Chris asks.

When there’s no other noise and no one else says they’ve heard anything, Jensen unclips his mic and puts it up to the EVP. “I’m going to play this back and see if we can hear the voices.” He rewinds the recorder and lets it play into his mic, listening intently until he hears his own voice ask if anyone is with them, if this person hurt Brian. Then a low, female voice whispers, _Yessss. I did._.

“There it is!” Chris says, nodding. “That’s what I heard.”

Jensen smiles and turns back to Brian, who looks rightfully spooked. “Have you seen anything else here?”

“Out in the hall,” the guys replies quickly. “There was a little girl.”

“You saw her?”

“Yeah, after I was hit, I went out into the hallway and saw her standing by the door right there.” Brian points straight to the hallway where another door faces the room they’re in. “But she didn’t move.”

Jensen takes a grease pencil out from the inside pocket of his jacket and marks an X in the corner. “We’ll set up a night-cam right here, and get one out in the hallway to watch inside.” He walks the path into the hallway, stops between the doors, and spins around to Room 502. He closes the door and watches Jared turn his camera toward the plate-glass window that takes up most of the upper-half of the door. Chris sets his camera to Jared and smiles. 

Jensen smiles a little, too, when he can tell Jared’s not exactly amused. 

“I’m getting locked inside aren’t I?” Jared asks.

“You’re a big boy,” Jensen replies. “You can handle it.”

“Yeah, big boy,” Chris laughs, and Jensen does as well. 

It feels comfortable for them to interact now. It’s all too easy to taunt Jared and get the right responses on camera. This works.

* * *

A few weeks later, they’re in Little Rock, Arkansas. It’s nearly midnight, pale streetlamps lighting the street in front of the Old Arsenal Building. They’d filmed their initial tour of the haunted facility that was once one of thirty buildings that made up the ammunitions storage facility back in the mid-1800s. Now, the Tower Building stands as the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and one of the most haunted places in Little Rock. They’d talked to tour guides who told stories of disembodied voices, music, and solid as well as see-through apparitions in various areas of the building.

Now it’s show time. 

Jensen steps over the threshold amnd flips his handheld cam up to catch Chris and Jared following him inside. He sets it on night vision as he begins talking and walking backwards into the front lobby.

“Here we are for our lockdown in the Old Arsenal Building. This morning, Debbie Miner told us of the uniformed man she’s seen in the theater and the spirit that roams the front stairwell here.” He turns his camera to the grand staircase and slowly approaches it before angling the lens toward himself to talk. “And tonight, we’re hoping to catch these men on tape, by visual confirmation and verbal, and we’ll be doing it in the dark. Pitch black and alone.”

They say goodnight to Debbie, and she locks the front door and walks off into the night. They film their walk into the east end of the ground floor where employees have said music and voices can be heard.

Jensen focuses his camera on each of the corners and points out the night vision cameras. “We have stable cams set here in this room and an EVP on this chair in the middle. Back in the lobby, there are two heat sensors. One faces this room, and the other is filming the stairs.”

“Dude, it’s getting cold in here,” Chris says.

It’s early fall in the South; the day had been comfortable and this building at night is stuffy, so Chris saying he’s cold is off.

Jensen looks at him and nods, pulling his mel meter out for Jared to move in and film. “This mel meter logs temperatures in the room. If the temp is really dropping, then this will record that.” After a few seconds, Jensen grips the sides of the meter and breathes deep when the digital numbers turn over each other to go lower. He feels the quick zing of excitement make his knees twitch. “There’s definitely something here. The temp’s dropping. Seventy-four, seventy-three, seventy-one, sixty-nine, sixty-six.”

A few seconds later, Jensen looks up to Chris’s camera. “Five seconds and it’s dropped ten degrees.”

“It had to have been nearly eighty when we were first locked down.”

Glancing around, Jensen listens for anything, but all he can pick out is Jared’s harsh breathing. As capable as Jared is with a camera, his nerves during lockdowns haven’t eased much and that’s a bit concerning. Jensen turns towards Jared’s camera. “You okay?”

Jared nods and repositions his camera on Jensen. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Alright,” Jensen accepts. “Debbie’s office is right below here and she said she could hear people walking around after hours. There was music and laughing, but no one else was here.”

“Shh!” Chris urges.

Jensen and Jared each spin in the room, filming the empty corners before finding Chris again. “Laughter?” Jensen guesses.

“Yeah, I heard…there were a few voices. Definitely laughing. A few guys. Definitely more than one.”

Focused back on Jared’s camera, Jensen pulls another piece of equipment out and gestures with it. “We have the EVP set, but hopefully this spirit box will pick something up. It puts out electromagnetic frequencies for the spirits to speak through. It amplifies their voices, and we’re gonna try to bait one.”

“We goin’ spirit fishin’,” Jared says. 

Jensen chuckles. “Definitely feels that way.” He flips the box on and jagged sounds play out. He’s always hated the rough feedback of the machine, how it overpowers the mics. He hates hearing it on playback or when they’re summarizing episodes back in the studio, but it’s a vital piece of equipment for their show. 

The green night vision from Jared’s screen glares on his face and Jensen can see how he winces to the sounds as well. He even tips his head to the side, eyes slanting away, as if he’s trying to listen over the spirit box for anything. 

Jared’s not a newbie anymore, and Jensen smiles at the thought. Even if he’s beginning to wonder if Jared is taking it all a bit too seriously.

“Who’s here with us?” Jensen asks loudly, hoping the mics pick up his question over the noisy box. “We heard the music. Are you having a party? What are you celebrating?”

The box sputters on, but no other sounds break through.

“Can we party with you?” Jared asks.

Jensen chuckles under his breath. He taps the side of the black, rectangular box, and then a sharp _No!_ comes through.

“Oh man!” Jared yells. “They said no!”

Jensen jumps onto that, looking at Jared as he keeps asking questions. “Why can’t we party with you? Don’t you like us? Are we unwelcome in here?” He glances up to Jared’s camera. “Dude, I think they just don’t like you.”

_No!_

There’s a quick round of shocked laughter, and Jared goes on to ask loudly, “Why don’t you like me? Everybody likes me.”

Jensen finds himself smiling at Jared; he’s starting to agree there. 

The box continues to pump out stuttering noises, but otherwise the room goes quiet. After a half minute of silence, Jensen knows they have to move on to film more. “Alright, Jared, you stay down here. Check out the lobby and the west halls. Chris, you and I are going upstairs.”

“Dude, really,” Jared huffs, but he’s moving back into the hallway anyway. “Always gotta be Jared stuck behind.”

“Always,” Chris agrees. He smacks Jared on the back and smirks at Jensen’s camera. “Let’s go boss.”

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Jensen jokes as he passes Jared and starts up the stairs.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jared replies easily. “And screw you, too.”

In the upstairs hallways, Jensen and Chris film themselves in each room. Armed with EVPs, they ask more questions – what’s happened here, why are there remaining spirits, what do they want? They approach the third floor and talk about apparitions that have reportedly been seen when suddenly Chris stops in place and quickly turns his head in different directions.

Jensen angles his camera toward him and films around, too. “What is it?”

“Dude, it’s getting even colder.”

The mel meter comes out again and Jensen puts it in front of his lens to capture the temperature dropping into the sixties. “We’re down to sixty-three degrees. Is someone there?”

“There’s definitely someone here,” Chris declares. “Who’s here? Who’s making it this cold?” Then suddenly, Chris shuffles around, pointing his camera at the doorway. “Oh, shit! I saw a shadow. A shadow moved!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Of course I’m sure! There was a shadow right here by the door.”

Jensen puts the mel meter back inside his jacket and holds his EVP in the air. “Are you the shadows on the walls? Are you the shadows that follow Debbie everywhere?”

“I think it went down the hall,” Chris says as he steps into the hallway, still in view of Jensen’s night vision. “Why are you here?” he asks loudly. “What do you want?”

“Shit, it’s really cold in here now.”

“I know.” They remain in place and wait for more, but Chris can’t keep quiet. “Oh man, it’s really cold right here. I don’t know, dude. There’s … there’s something …” 

Jensen films him and notices how Chris is staring off in the distance. “Chris? What is it?”

Chris abruptly shakes his head. “I dunno. It’s weird. I feel really weird.”

“Weird like what? Tell me,” Jensen insists.

“I’m dizzy.”

Jensen steps closer and aims his camera up and down the hall before he flips it around to face the lens himself. “It’s definitely something. It’s like I can’t breathe. Like the air is thick and my chest is heavy.”

“Yeah, definitely can’t breathe.” Chris leans against the far wall and forces his chest out. “Man, I think I’m gonna pass out.”

Before Jensen can respond, they hear Jared shout from downstairs. It’s an abrupt, shocked noise followed by Jared muttering over and over. 

Jensen shoves Chris forward so they can head down the hall then the stairs, and they find Jared on the second-floor landing. He’s slumped against the wall, bending forward while frantically searching the area. Jensen focuses his camera on Jared and strangely finds himself nervous that Jared seems this freaked out. “What’s wrong? What’d you see?”

“It was a shadow. A moving shadow down the stairs,” Jared replies quickly.

“The one I saw!” Chris insists. 

“You saw it?”

“Yeah, it came out of the room we were in.”

Jared sighs and runs a hand over his head. “Holy shit. It totally had to be … holy shit.”

Jensen sets his palm to Jared’s shoulder, squeezes quickly but lets go when Jared spins to face him. He holds his hand out to prove it was just him, not something – or someone – else . “You’re fine, Jared.”

“Yeah, alright. Yeah.” Jared sighs again and bites his lower lip. 

Jensen resolutely turns away from him and heads to his left. They’re not even halfway done. There’s a theater with the man in a top hat, and he’s not going to miss Jared’s reactions to that. 

They don’t get far. Once Jensen and Chris are off of the landing, there’s a soft thump and Jared’s cursing again.

He gets his camera on Jared just as Jared complains, “Something just flew by my head!”

Jensen smirks, remembering Debbie’s story about the apparition that has been known to throw things at people on the second landing. 

“Oh my God!” Jared yells. “Who’s there? Who just threw that?”

“I told ya they don’t like you,” Chris jokes.

Jensen laughs along with him, even more when Jared glares at them then eases up to chuckle himself.

This lockdown is going perfectly.

* * *

“New Orleans, Louisiana. Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1,” Jensen says. He slowly walks backwards into the cemetery with Chris and Jared in front of him, following and filming as they go. “In one of the most colorful and stimulating communities in the country, this cemetery is steeped in French Quarter history and its most well-known practices … Voodoo.”

Moving further into the cemetery, they bypass aboveground tombs and elaborate headstones that show their age by the state of the fading and cracked stones. It adds to the ambiance, and while Jensen feels like he’s shocked with energy, Jared seems a bit unsettled as he keeps blinking, huffing, and adjusting his shoulders as he follows Jensen.

“Founded in 1789, Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in the area and houses some of the most famous residents of New Orleans. Most notably, Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau and her daughter Marie Laveau the second.”

Jensen stops next to the pale white mausoleum with the bronze plaque that declares itself the tomb of Marie Laveau, _Voodoo Queen_. Chris steps closer to zoom in on the plaque while Jared films the outside walls, all marked up with trios of the letter X.

Jared runs his fingers over a few particularly large, dark marks then looks to Jensen with a raised eyebrow. “You really think this works?”

“We’ll find out tonight won’t we?” Jensen replies with a cocky grin. 

With a chuckle, Jared insists, “ _You_ can find out and tell me all about it later.”

Jensen shrugs and walks out of Chris’s view so he can grab B-roll of the tombs around them. They have time while they wait on another paranormal crew to join them and give them an insider’s point of view on the cemetery. This whole trip feels easier than the past few. He’s excited to pair up with some old friends here and is looking forward to spending a few extra days in New Orleans. They don’t often get to vacation in the towns they visit; though there aren’t many places as historic as this one.

“Sure, I will,” Jensen agrees. “And you can keep watch on Bain Street to see if anything else goes bump in the night.”

“Dude, no. Why’re you always ragging on me for those things?”

“’Cause you’re so pretty when you’re scared.”

Jared laughs and drops his camera off his shoulder, smiling right at Jensen. “I might be flattered if I believed you meant that.”

Jensen stares back at him, daring Jared to say more yet ignoring how true his comment could have been. When on camera, Jensen knows exactly what to say and how; he has a persona to carry. But off-screen, Jensen’s been feeling more and more off-kilter in response to Jared. They joke, sure, and it’s easy. Jensen’s often finding himself wondering, though, how much is just team camaraderie and how much is something else. 

Jared breaks the staring contest when he whips around in place, shoulders going stiff. “What was that?” he asks in a rush.

“What was what?” Jensen narrows his eyes as he looks off in the direction Jared is watching. There’s a thump in the distance and a soft moan that makes Jared flinch again. Seconds later a clump of hard dirt flies towards them, crumbling when it hits the ground. Jensen shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “You’re such a child, Dan,” Jensen calls out.

Jared whips around to Jensen. “Where’s Dan?” 

“You can come out now. You’re just scaring the kid.”

“But I hear he’s pretty when he’s scared,” is the reply before Danneel steps out from behind another tall tomb about forty feet away. She’s grinning at them as she comes forward with her partner Ryan walking alongside her. 

“You’re so cute when you’re immature,” Jensen jokes when they meet up and hug. He gestures at them as he introduces Jared. “Danni and Ryan of the Paranormal and Unexplained Supernatural Investigators.”

Jared eyes them both, taking in the tall, blond Ryan, and Jensen wants to chuckle. No one is ever as big as Jared, but Jared still seems a little unsure of their guests for this episode. “Danni?”

Danneel steps up to him, happily shaking his hand and giving him a crooked smile. “That’s me. You don’t mind a woman on set, do ya?”

“Of course not,” he replies with a laugh. “I just expected someone a little less …”

“Breasty?” she asks, purposely pushing her chest out.

Jensen rolls his eyes. Danneel is wearing skin-tight jeans to show off her slim figure and a low-cut v-neck shirt that draws the eyes to her … breastiness. Jensen’s not sure why he’s bothered that she’s checking Jared out and flirting with him. Still, he tells her, “You’re gross.”

“What? I’m just testing your new recruit.”

When she winks at Jared, he seems hardly phased, smiling easily. “Well, I’m gay. So, experiment over.”

Jensen immediately looks at Jared and he’s not sure that it’s a surprise, really. Jensen had a feeling about Jared, given how the kid had so nervously responded to Jensen early on and then how chummy he’s been lately. It’s more shocking that Jared’s so easily admitted it, so casual to have said it in front of new people. 

Danneel shakes her head. “That’s a damn shame. Two hottest guys on the Travel Channel and you’re more likely to screw each other.”

“Don’t mind her,” Ryan says, tugging Danneel back by her shoulders. “She’s obnoxious.”

Jensen laughs with Ryan and Chris, who’s now joined them to welcome their guests, though he stalls for a few moments when he can tell Jared’s staring at him again. He clears his throat and claps his hands together. They’ve got a job to do. 

“So, now that we’re all intimately aware of one another, let’s get to it,” Jensen insists. 

Everyone sobers from the joking and gets into place, Jensen standing next to Laveau’s tomb with Danneel and Ryan to his side, and Jared and Chris filming. They get down to business as Jensen starts talking.

“We’re joined today by Danneel Harris and Ryan Hansen of The Paranormal and Unexplained Supernatural Investigators. Now, you’re stationed here in New Orleans and are local experts.”

“That we are,” Ryan replies with a nod. 

“What kind of things do you see here?”

He chuckles and motions around them. “Beyond the historic cemeteries, the place breathes its own kind of spirit. New Orleans really embraces the cultures around us, especially voodoo and the power it holds.”

“Including the Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1,” Jensen prompts.

“There’s a lot to be said for who’s buried here.”

“Like Marie Laveau,” Jensen says, waving at the tomb behind him. “She’s been called New Orleans’ Voodoo Queen, and she was laid to rest in this tomb in 1881. What is her legacy here in New Orleans?”

Danneel leans forward and picks up the loose script they’d discussed weeks ago when they’d first made arrangements for this trip. “Back in the mid-1800s, Marie Laveau was a devout Catholic who was committed to helping the sick during the Yellow Fever epidemic. As she learned more about medicine, she was intrigued by the human soul and stayed with the dying as they passed, easing their deaths. She became the first Voodoo Queen and all in New Orleans honored her for her abilities.”

“And her daughter, also named Marie?”

“Her daughter took over in the same nature and continued her mother’s legacy after her passing in 1881. Today, they’re both buried here. Many would come to each of the women for help with love and money, and they still do to this day.”

Jensen steps to the side and points at the Xs across the tomb. “And these markings?”

Ryan traces three Xs as he explains, “Legend has it that you mark three Xs together, leave offerings, and ask the Laveaus to fulfill a wish.”

Crouching down, Jensen picks through the items laid at the foot of the tomb. “Cigars, flowers, jewelry, even bottles of liquor … these are all offerings for Marie?”

Danneel nods. “People still come and wait for the women to grant them wishes.”

Jensen smirks at them. “And on St. John’s Eve?”

Ryan smiles and motions at the tomb. “St. John’s Eve, June 23rd, is the night before Feast Day. It was one of Marie Laveau’s traditions. She held rituals out on Bayou St. John to celebrate with other voodoo practitioners.”

“And today?”

“Many will still celebrate on the Bayou. Others come for ceremonies and orgies.”

Jensen glances at Chris’s then Jared’s cameras. “Orgies,” he says with a sly smile. 

“In a cemetery,” Jared says dryly. “So sexy.”

The group laughs and Jensen smiles right into Jared’s lens, purposely playing it up for the tape. “Maybe tonight we’ll find some for ourselves. We’re spending tonight with the Voodoo Queens and hopefully … they’ll fulfill our greatest wishes.”

* * *

Just past midnight, the five of them traipse through the cemetery. Jensen, Jared, and Chris are armed with their cameras set to night vision while Danneel and Ryan walk just ahead. She’s carrying goods in her arms and he’s got an EVP recorder held out in front of them.

Their muffled footsteps are accompanied by cicadas buzzing, crickets chirping off in the distance, and the low murmur of nearby traffic. The pale half-moon is their only light as they follow Danneel and Ryan, who expertly know their way.

Jensen hears Jared take a deep breath and when he looks at him, Jared’s eyes are wide and unfocused. “Jared?” he asks quietly.

“Cemeteries are spooky, man.”

Jensen chuckles then flips his camera around to his face and speaks loud enough for his mic, ready to start their night. “It’s the middle of the night in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, and we’re going to visit Marie Laveau’s tomb. Tradition says that if we bring her offerings and mark her tomb with three Xs then we can ask her for something in return. Jared, what’re you gonna ask for?”

“If I tell you, I’d have to kill you.”

They all laugh, easing the tension of the dark night, and come to an abrupt stop in front of Laveau’s tomb. 

“We’ve invited Danneel and Ryan from P.U.S.I. to lead us in the offerings tonight,” Jensen says, turning his camera back to the two standing next to the tomb. “Have you done this before?”

“No, we haven’t,” Ryan replies.

“First time for everything,” Danneel adds with a wink. 

Jensen moves to the side so that all three cameras have different angles on Danneel and Ryan. “You guys are the experts here, local residents and all. Go on ahead.”

Danneel crouches to set flowers and a bottle of bourbon on the stone at the base of the tomb while Ryan speaks. “Miss Laveau, we come with an offering and ask that you give back in return.” As he draws chalks Xs in an empty spot of the tomb, he continues: “I ask for a windfall of money and the love of a good, breasty woman.”

Danneel smacks him in the gut then smirks when she stands, pressing her palm to the tomb. “Miss Laveau, we pray to you and wait for great financial gain.”

They wait out the silence for a full minute, watching and listening for any sort of response. Nothing happens and Jensen hands his camera off to Ryan so he can draw on the tomb himself. 

“Oh, Miss Laveau, our Voodoo Queen” he says loudly. 

“Dude, don’t taunt the ghost,” Chris says.

Jensen winks at Chris’s camera. “We come in peace and with great honor for your power. I leave you with these cigars and hope you will grant me prizes in return.” He pulls a handful of cigars from his back pocket, leans down to set them next to the flowers, and traces his own marks on the stone.

The others do the same and they continue to film the tomb, circling it, checking the area for any noises or sights. 

After some time Danneel shivers and looks at Jensen’s camera. “I feel someone here.”

“Yeah,” Ryan agrees. “There’s something heavy in the air.”

“It’s like we’re being watched,” Chris adds, his camera sweeping the area. 

“Shh,” Ryan says. “I heard something.” He holds the EVP out, spinning in a circle. “I heard chanting.”

Danneel sets her hand to the tomb and closes her eyes. “I think I hear her. It’s not English, but I hear it, too.”

Jensen goes next to Ryan and aims his camera at the EVP. “Replay your tape.” Ryan fiddles with the EVP then hits play and they all listen closely to harsh whispering, words garbled in a different language.

“That’s creole,” Danneel says.

“This is a real EVP recording that Ryan picked up,” Jensen explains to Chris’s camera. “We just left our offerings for her and now we hear her chanting in Louisiana creole. If only we could understand her words. At this point, we can only assume she’s completing the ceremony for giving.”

“There’s definitely something here,” Chris insists. “There are cold spots right here.”

Jensen walks to where Chris is standing before empty stones in front of the bronze plaque announcing Marie Laveau’s legend. He holds his hand out near Chris’s and nods. “Yeah, there’s something right here.”

“Look at this!” Chris pulls up on his sleeve and Jared comes close to film what Jensen can imagine is Chris’s goosepimpled arm. He’s always so sensitive to the cold and brings it to their attention.

Jensen grabs his camera back from Ryan and then Danneel makes a noise and flicks her hair off one shoulder, looking shocked. 

“Something just touched my neck.” She points to the spot and Jensen films it. Under the night vision, he can see the skin is splotchy. He sets his finger to the area and she flinches again. “Yeah, right there.”

“It looks like a hand print.” 

Ryan comes next to Jensen as they look at it together, Ryan agreeing and tracking the pattern as well. 

“I told you cemeteries are creepy,” Jared says suddenly. 

Jensen swings his camera to Jared. “Are you scared, Jay?”

“No, dude, it’s just weird here. I keep feeling something around me.”

Chris tsks mockingly. “So many dead bodies, so little time.”

Jensen smiles at him. “Then it’s a good thing we’re here all week.”

* * *

After their shoot, they return to the double-galley home Danneel and Ryan share, intent to be here for their extended stay. The plan has been to film their summarization here on the P.U.S.I. equipment on the main floor with Danneel and Ryan contributing what they’ve all heard and seen at the cemetery, and fill the rest of their time interviewing other locals while taking in the sights with two friendly tour guides.

Jensen sleeps hard in the guest room on the first floor. It’s one of the best rests he’s had in days, waking in the late afternoon when voices carry from the front parlor. Jensen tugs his jeans back on to go with the shirt he’d slept in, and finds Danneel and Ryan in front of their equipment set up in the dining room. Ryan is flipping dials to single out footage, and Jensen is glad to see they’re getting a jump on the material. 

He whistles low as he takes in the full spread of flat screens, recording docks, and mixers. “Impressive.”

Danneel smiles from over her shoulder. “You talking to me or the thermo tape?”

Jensen laughs and pats her back as he views the middle screen with the thermal processing footage Chris had filmed late in their taping. “Whichever will get me coffee faster.”

Jared suddenly appears at Jensen’s side with two mugs of coffee and passes one to Jensen. “It’s like I’m psychic or something.”

“Psycho, maybe,” Jensen mumbles just before sipping the hot brew. 

“Mmhmm. What’s that?” Jared asks, pointing at the swirls of green and yellow on screen. A red blur grows off to the left side of the monitor then unfurls then disappears all together.

“Chris’s thermal footage,” Ryan says, distracted. “I’m trying to shape the figures.”

Jared steps forward. “Wow. Play it again.”

Jensen tugs on Jared’s elbow. “Not so fast, sparky. Wait ‘til we’re all lucid and caffeinated.”

“And showered,” Danneel adds. “Y’all stink right now.”

“That’s all you,” Jensen says with a finger aimed at Jared. 

As Jared walks to the stairs, he says, “Oh, sweetheart, how you flatter me.”

When Jared’s out of sight and heading to shower, Jensen finds Danneel and Ryan staring at him. He frowns at them. “What?”

Danneel smirks. “Sweetheart?”

“It’s just … it’s nothing.”

“Sure thing, surgarlips,” Ryan jokes before turning back to the screen.

“He’s very cute,” Danneel says. 

Jensen sighs and decides to focus on the footage Ryan is lining up for their summarization. Still, he replies, “I’m well aware.”

“And very gay.”

“As are you,” Ryan adds.

“Very cute or very gay?”

Danneel pats his head like he’s a child who doesn’t know better. “A little of both, my dear.”

In lieu of answering, Jensen drinks more coffee. The longer she watches him, the more unnerved he feels and now coffee is the last thing he wants. He puts the mug down on the corner of the long desk and walks back to his room. “I’m gonna shower.”

“With Jared?” Danneel asks.

“Good idea,” Ryan says. “You’ll save water.”

Jensen slams the bedroom door.

* * *

The house is in a highly residential, extremely historical area called Faubourg Marigny. There is nothing excessively touristy here, but Jensen values that even more. It’s more down-home bohemian, which is perfect for their trip that night down to Port of Call. The bar is filled to the brim with nautical treasures and folk who are happy and buzzed enough to talk freely of local stories of Marie Laveau and St. John’s Eve.

They don’t hear much new from any research they’ve done, but it helps to get others to recount these stories. Jensen knows it’s better on tape from the locals. Their attention don’t last long, though, because the giant hurricanes the place serves are potent. Just a few hours in and Jensen feels ridiculously lazy in his speech and movements, and he’s certain anything they film now will be useless. Another hour is spent enjoying the people around them and the ambiance then they amble back to Danneel’s place, all five of them armed with large to-go hurricanes.

On Danneel’s open porch, they spread out and enjoy the rest of the warm night. Jensen’s feeling overly warm himself, and keeps smiling at Jared, who’s seated across the steps from him. 

“I love New Orleans,” Jared mumbles just before he messily sips from his cup.

“I think that’s the liquor talking,” Danneel murmurs.

“I love liquor,” he says into the top of his drink.

Jensen chuckles then glances up at Danneel. She’s on the stair above him and lightly scratching nails down his neck then nodding towards Jared. 

Jared spreads his arms out, hurricane sloshing over the side of his cup. “I love this _job_. And I love you,” he says, looking right at Jensen. “For taking me on. For hiring me. For trusting me.”

Now fully laughing, Jensen shuffles on the step to stretch his legs out. “Well, thank you, Jared. I love you, too.”

Jared twists around to glance at Chris and Ryan, both of whom are kicked back in porch chairs and smoking fragrant cigars. “If only he meant it, ya know?”

Chris glares at Jensen. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jared argues, suddenly seeming less drunk than he did just minutes ago. “We get to travel the country and _hunt ghosts_. How freaking cool is that? It’s like, my dream. To see and hear the things we do? It’s amazing. I’d do it for free.”

“There you go, Chris,” Jensen points out with a smooth smile. “Jared is relinquishing his salary. Congratulations on your raise.”

Jared smacks Jensen’s leg, which is mighty close to him. Jensen hadn’t noticed that, really. “You’re so mean.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” he drags out, mocking Jared for his line that morning. “I know that’s how you like it.”

Danneel taps the back of Jensen’s head and clears her throat; Jensen recognizes her cue to change the subject. He’s thankful for it, unsure where to go after Jared smiles warmly at him for what he’s just said. “So, you’re hittin’ the jackpot with New Orleans, boys. What more is there?”

“Anything is up from here,” Chris says with a smirk.

“That’s because we’re so far south. There ain’t much to say to that.”

“You could go to Jacksonville,” Ryan suggests. His crooked shrug says he’s joking. “Whole lotta retired folk have to be seeing crazy things.”

“Why do we always go to the South?” Jared asks. 

Jensen watches Jared for a few beats. He’s halfway amazed that Jared appears to be honestly stumped by his own question. “We could go north. We _should_ ” he adds. He glances at Chris, thinking that something a little less humid and sticky could do them good after the last few months. 

Chris scoffs. “When you can fit it in the schedule.”

“Ryan grew up in Wisconsin,” Danneel points out. “He claims there’re some crazy things up there.”

Jensen leans back to smirk at her. “That’s just the people.”

“Nah,” Ryan says lazily. “Up in Wisconsin Dells, Devil’s Lake has a long record of UFOs.”

“UFOs aren’t our style, man,” Jensen points out. “And why’s a place named Devil’s Lake not full of … ya know, _devils_?”

“Grand Lake, Devil’s Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake,” Chris sings low, invoking Johnny Cash’s meaty rumble. 

“I’ve been everywhere, man,” Ryan joins in. “Crossed the desert's bare, man.”

Jared picks up the tune and warbles, “I've been to Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville …”

Chris laughs as Jared trails off with mumbling the quick melody. “Yeah, boy, what’s next?”

Danneel heaves a loud breath. “Lordy, if y’all are gonna sing, I’m going in to shove my head under the mattress.”

Jensen smiles at the group. “Give ‘em a break. It’s not like they got much else going for them.”

“Man, screw you,” Chris complains, flicking what’s left of his cigar towards Jensen. He misses by a mile and it lands in the brush on the other side of the stairs. “Shit. My aim is shit.”

“As are your manners, hot shot,” Danneel says as she rises to retrieve it. “I’m heading in before you set my house on fire.”

Chris grumbles at her, but he’s up then, too, and follows her inside. Jensen doesn’t immediately notice that Ryan’s also gone and it’s just him and Jared. 

“For real, though,” Jared says suddenly soft. Maybe because they’re alone now. “We always go south. And east. Right now we’re both.”

Jensen laughs and nudges his foot into the side of Jared’s thigh, feeling warm and lazy in the right way, especially when Jared looks at him with a deep gaze. It’s as if Jared can’t look away now, and Jensen’s finding he can’t either. “Where do you wanna go, Jared?” he teases. 

Jared shifts and leans to the side on his elbow. Jensen’s mentally measuring the space between them as it has diminished exponentially now. “Man, it don’t hardly matter. I’m just happy to be out of my parents’ house.”

“That bad?”

“No, they were good. Real good.” Jared looks down to the stair below him, flicking his thumbnail over a groove in the wood. “Just, I had a lot of great ideas about what to do with myself. Not many would come true staying close to home. I miss ‘em like a limb, but I felt like I had to leave soon.” When he glances up, he’s hesitant for the first time all night, almost frowning. “You know what I mean? Or do I just sound stupid and spoiled now?”

“Nah,” Jensen says softly. “You sound smart. Dreaming for better isn’t so bad. Knowing you wanted more.”

Jared releases an embarrassed smile and chuckle then looks down again. “And I got it. With you guys.”

When Jared glances back up, he’s biting the inside of his mouth, making his cheek twist and nearly hide his trademark dimples. Jensen’s a little ashamed to say that he’s still searching for them, like it doesn’t make sense to talk to Jared unless he can see one of those silly little dimples. Jensen smirks and tries to deflect his sudden, building want. Or at least prolong it. “Yeah, but where’s that gonna take ya?”

“What’s that matter?” Jared shrugs then sings, “I've been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota …”

Before Jared can get through all of _Sarasota_ , Jensen has leaned in and snagged his fingers around Jared’s neck, twisted them into his hair, and kisses him full on the lips. Prolonging what he wants has never really worked for Jensen before, so he’s not about to scold himself for it. Especially not when Jared lets out a needy sound as he opens his lips to Jensen’s and lifts a hand to hold Jensen’s forearm, as if he’s keeping Jensen in place. 

Jensen shuts his eyes, slips his tongue into Jared’s mouth, and widens his mouth around Jared’s. He tries to ignore the flare of heat he gets when Jared rises higher to meet him in the kiss, to make it all more level. And deeper, because good Lord, Jensen feels like he’s about to slip right inside Jared’s mouth and live in the taste and warmth of him. Shit, Jared can _kiss_. 

He feels as though the wind’s been knocked out of him, becoming more feverish with every growing second that their tongues wind together, as their lips smack against each other. He thinks about stopping to breathe, but he can’t end this moment. He only slows it down by withdrawing his tongue and tipping his head to the side. He’s pleased when Jared chases his tongue into his mouth, now thoroughly kissing Jensen and dragging his hand up Jensen’s arm, curling it around his shoulder and tugging. 

It’s nowhere near comfortable. Jensen leans down and over Jared, his back straining at the angle, but he still can’t stop. Kissing Jared is intoxicating and sobering at the same time, because now he has every sense on overload with Jared’s mouth sealed with his own and he’s far too aware of it all. Jared’s neck can’t be doing well, either, but he’s not showing signs of it and keeps right up with Jensen. 

Jensen can’t remember the last time he’s been so attached to kissing another person. Sure, he’s got himself a healthy sex life, stories that are killer to remember later. But he’s not sure that he’s kissed someone with this much intent for this long. And he’s certain that it’s never been with someone who has milled around in the back of his head for as much as Jared has these last few months. Jensen is certain he will never forget this kiss, or Jared, now. 

Knowing that deep in his bones makes him pull back to catch his breath. It’s good, yet overwhelming.

Jared’s sucking in air and shivering, and Jensen knows the feeling. He looks down his nose and goes dizzy as he waits for Jared to open his eyes, waits to say something because Jensen can barely find his lungs let alone words.

“I didn’t know Johnny Cash turned you on,” Jared breathes against Jensen’s cheek. 

“I love the Man in Black,” Jensen replies easily.

“Good to know. Especially that you like a man of any kind.”

Jensen huffs a laugh and leans back to take in all of Jared’s face, which is flushed with heat. “Jared.”

Jared’s adam’s apple pops as he swallows. His voice is tight when he asks, “Yeah, Jensen?”

“Sit up. You gotta be sore like that.” Jensen had meant it to sound light, but he knows he’s missed the mark when Jared ambles upright and puts a little space between them. 

Jared clears his throat and attempts to smile and joke. “What are your feelings on Willie Nelson? Next time I’ll make sure to sing someone that won’t make you act questionably.”

“Jared,” Jensen says, low. He tips himself close to Jared again. “Don’t you dare.”

Jared’s eyes roam Jensen’s face. “Sing Willie?”

Jensen smirks, taking the situation in hand. Along with Jared’s face, so he can bring him back in. “Stop me from acting questionably.”

Jared bites his lower lip, like he’s anticipating what he’s going to say next; it’s good, Jensen will give him that. “How questionably are we talking here?”

“How far are you thinkin’?”

“Honestly?”

Jensen nods, because he’s dying to know. Because he doesn’t want this feeling to end. 

Again, Jared doesn’t disappoint. “For as long as we can stay awake.”

Jensen smiles and runs his nose along Jared’s. He feels his skin prickle when Jared turns toward him and slides his palms up Jensen’s arms, letting his fingers slip into Jensen’s shirt sleeves and grope along the curve of his shoulders. Christ, Jensen hadn’t known this kid would do this to him, but he’s willing to give it to Jared; he’s turning Jensen right over with just the slow path of his fingers. Jensen shifts with his leg resting behind Jared to full face Jared and now he has no problem tugging Jared right against him. Jared comes willingly and immediately slants up to Jensen’s next kiss.

Jared hums into Jensen’s mouth, their tongues vibrating together, and Jensen can’t let him go for a long time. They don’t move much either, staying seated as they are and kissing for what feels like forever. Their hands change it up, Jared pulling his hands out of Jensen’s shirt to rub over Jensen’s sides or fumble over his back and then back down to his hips. Jensen skims his hands across Jared’s jaw, into his hair, along the back of his neck. 

When he drags his palm down Jared’s chest, he can feel the thunder of Jared’s heart beating rapidly, and he smiles as he nudges Jared back just an inch. Without a word, he stands and pulls Jared up with him by the hand. They remain deathly quiet inside as Jensen stalls for a moment. He can hear Chris, Ryan, and Danneel in the back parlor. Apparently they’re playing cards judging from the bets they’re calling and the tell-tale sound of chips shuffled on the oak table. 

Jensen knows there’s no way to hide everything here; they’re a close group, only five of them in this house. Yet he’s not up for letting everyone in on this right now. He puts his finger to his mouth as he glances at Jared then leads them into his room and quietly shuts the door. 

The air in the room feels warm and stuffy, thicker than he remembers from the night before. Still, he looks forward to sweating it through with Jared, who’s now standing in front of him looking earnest yet absorbed with desire, intently watching him step closer. 

Jensen sets his hands to Jared’s hips and Jared does the same. As Jared dips his head down, Jensen leans into him to kiss again, and he seriously doesn’t think he’ll ever tire of kissing Jared. He’ll never forget the smooth drag of Jared’s tongue along his own, Jared’s pliable lips sucking at his lower lip, the warmth of his wet, wide mouth.

Jared’s mouth drifts over Jensen’s cheek and along his jaw until he latches onto Jensen’s neck. He sucks and licks at Jensen’s pulse point, and Jensen hums as he reaches between them to stroke over Jared’s waistband. When Jensen slides his hand lower, Jared whimpers and drops his forehead to Jensen’s shoulder with a soft curse. 

Through denim, Jensen strokes Jared and squeezes his dick as he feels it growing hard in the loose jeans. He sucks at the curve of Jared’s neck, even over his collarbone, then drifts down to settle on his knees. 

“Oh, Jesus,” Jared whispers. “You’re really gonna …”

Jensen slowly drags Jared’s belt out of its buckle and unlatches it while looking up to Jared’s wide eyes. “Are you gonna be okay?” he asks with a hint of teasing.

Jared nods minutely. “More than okay.”

He doesn’t waste time now getting Jared’s jeans open and down to his hips or getting the head of Jared’s dick into his mouth. He easily fists Jared, mouth meeting his hand as he moves up and down, and Jared’s hands carefully land on Jensen’s head. Jared doesn’t guide him; it’s more like he just wants to feel Jensen move, like he’s simply along for the ride. 

Somehow, that turns Jensen on more, and his dick is getting hard in his own jeans. He rubs his free hand over himself as he takes in every needy noise Jared makes. He’s alarmed, though, when Jared murmurs a run of _no, no, no_ and squeezes a hand over Jensen’s shoulder. 

Jensen pulls back and glances up at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Just … don’t do that,” Jared insists. He sounds wrecked no matter how quiet he is. “I wanna do that … when you’re done.”

Jensen smirks and lifts his hand up in surrender, foolishly satisfied when Jared laces their fingers together and squeezes. 

Even with the short pause, Jared is close when Jensen takes him down again and he murmurs nonsense as Jensen takes his time. He already loves the weight of Jared on his tongue, the overwhelming musk of his scent Jensen breathes in each time he sucks down the whole length of Jared’s incredibly hot, long dick. Jensen tongues around the head of Jared’s dick and dives right back down, humming around it, and sucking hard as he slides up and down.

Jared frantically taps Jensen’s shoulders and mutters that he’s about to come. Jensen takes him deeper for a long moment, forcing Jared there, then slips back to suck his cockhead clean. Jensen leans back on his haunches and wipes the corners of his mouth with his free hand, still gripping Jared’s hand with his other.

Jared breaks the silence again as he mumbles and wavers on his feet until he admits he can’t stand any longer and drops to sit at the edge of the mattress. He’s breathing heavy and still holding Jensen’s hand, which he uses to haul Jensen over to the bed with him. 

As soon as Jensen’s seated beside him, Jared grabs his neck and pulls him in for a sluggish kiss, as if he’s still drumming up energy after what just happened. He breaks the kiss to rest his head against Jensen’s and focus on his own hand trailing up Jensen’s thigh and then over the hard bulge of Jensen’s dick in his pants. “I said I wanted to …”

“Yeah, you did,” Jensen mumbles, missing his ability to be smooth with Jared’s hand on him. 

“And I was thinking of returning the favor. Taste you in my mouth.”

Jensen sighs and can’t keep his eyes open; they roll back and shut. “Fuck, Jared.”

“Maybe tomorrow.”

Now Jensen has to open his eyes and look at him. He has to grab hold of Jared’s face and kiss him hard and fast as he imagines them sweaty and writhing in bed. With Jared’s hand still rubbing him through his jeans, Jensen loses control of the kiss and just pants against Jared’s mouth. He thinks about pulling back, getting his jeans open, and letting this be more than just coming in his jeans, but he can’t. Not when Jared sucks at the corner of his jaw then down behind his ear as he slowly strokes him right through his orgasm. 

“I’ll have you know,” Jensen mumbles, head still tipped against Jared’s. He just likes the closeness. Right. It’s not because he can’t control his muscles at the moment. He’s not sure which is worse, actually. “As soon as I recover, I’m holding you to that _maybe tomorrow_ bit.”

“Yeah?”

Jensen glances up. Jared sounds breathy and unsure. Instead of answering, he slides in to suck at Jared’s upper lip, smacks their mouths together, and smiles minutely. For once, he’s trying to not overdo it when he skates a hand over Jared’s hair and pats his shoulder then stands. “I gotta clean up. Be back.”

Jared swallows and nods. “’Kay.”

Jensen takes a fresh pair of boxers with him to the bathroom, peeling his messy jeans and boxers down. He washes up and changes into the new shorts, hoping to slip and in out without being noticed, but of course he is.

Danneel is standing in the hallway from the parlor, staring at him with his clothes in his hand. She tsks and shakes her head. “You are a filthy human being.”

He sucks in a quick breath then shares a smile with her. “You said it was a shame. Two hottest guys on the channel …”

“So you’re blaming it on me? That you deflowered your intern?”

“I didn’t deflower him. He definitely knew what he was doing.”

She playfully rolls her eyes and pushes him aside so she can go up the stairs to her own room. 

He laughs to himself on the way back to the bedroom, somehow surprised Jared is still there. Happily surprised that he is, especially when Jared grants him a tiny smile.

* * *

In the early afternoon, Jensen wakes before Jared and takes the chance to admire how soundly he’s still sleeping. Jared’s on his side, facing Jensen, and curled into himself with his head tucked low.

Jensen reaches out then stops before he can swipe hair away from Jared’s eye or touch his cheek. He can hear the others are up and working, and he should really join them before they realize where he and Jared have been all day. After another quick over Jared, he gets out of bed, tugs some clothes on and heads to the kitchen for coffee before joining the rest of the crew in the parlor. 

Ryan and Danneel barely glance at him, but Chris gives him a good once-over and hums. After Jensen shrugs him off, Chris wordlessly points at the screen as if to remind Jensen why they’re here. Ryan has footage onscreen that’s lit night-vision green with Danneel in the frame as she touches Marie Laveau’s tomb. 

Jensen sits in an armchair facing the video console and watches the tape roll as he drinks, quietly commenting on things Jared’s camera caught and how to edit it with a frame Ryan has paused on another screen. In the middle of a long conversation on which EVPs to use, Jared comes out of the bedroom and freezes when they all look at him. 

“I, uh,” Jared mutters as he points a thumb behind him. “I had to …”

Danneel snorts and shakes her head. “Well, the shower’s open obviously,” she points out, gesturing at the rest of them in the room together.

“Yeah, I gotta go do that.”

He rushes up the stairs and Jensen kicks her ankle. When she looks over her shoulder, he gives her a long look, and says, “Be nice.”

“I am,” she replies sweetly. “I told him the shower was free.”

“You need one, too?” Chris asks, staring at him again. 

“We could just work,” Jensen offers, shrugging with attitude. “Instead of analyzing my sex life.”

“I vote for the first one,” Ryan says, continuing to wheel through footage.

Jensen nods. “And I vote that we listen to Ryan.”

Soon enough, Jared is back and showered with damp hair combed back off his face. Jensen does his best to not react to the image of Jared’s clear, flushed face. It’s making his hands twitch and his gut turn over with want, but he’s not going to let that out right now. They _are_ trying to work here, so he leans forward with his elbows on his knees and keeps watching the tape run.

Jared seems to fight with where to stand or whether he should sit in the chair beside Jensen, finally doing just that. Jensen glances back and shoots him a small smile, feeling crazy that he’s glad Jared returns it. 

Jensen doesn’t spend time wondering what he’s doing, what _they’re_ doing, or what will happen. He focuses on the tape and continues talking through it all with the group. Except not really.

* * *

They spend another night following Danneel and Ryan to some of their favorite hangouts. None of them drink as much or as fast as the night before, but Jared is uncharacteristically quiet as they barhop through the neighborhood. Jensen tries to ease the awkwardness by passing Jared drinks when they get new rounds and attempting to include him in their conversations by always turning toward him as they talk.

It works to a point, and he’s glad to see Jared relax a bit. He wishes he could muster the courage to talk directly to him, make the effort to touch him or reassure him that he doesn’t find what happened between them was a bad idea. Jensen doesn’t regret it; he keeps reliving it and thinking of another night in bed, Jared wriggling beneath Jensen’s hands, even Jared taking the lead and making Jensen beg until he’s hoarse. A tiny bit of him hopes that Jared is on the same page. 

Back at the house, they play long rounds of Texas Hold ‘Em, passing chips back and forth until Chris runs them all out. They head out the back door and hang on the stoop with another round of beers. All except Jared, who stays back in the small kitchen as if he’s got something better to do. 

It’s not long before Jared finally stands in the doorway to watch them talk, but Jensen feels as if it was eons. Suddenly, his mind is blank and mouth thick with uncertainty. He likes Jared; he’s a good kid, and Jensen’s image of him is getting better and better. He doesn’t want to play cocky with this, but he doesn’t really know how else to be. He wishes he had the right words to drag Jared right next to him without starting a fuss among his friends. It’s been a while since Jensen’s had to face this sort of situation, deal with people around him sharing their opinions – large or small, real or not – on what he does behind closed doors. He’s uncertain of how to deal with it, especially with Jared in their crew. 

Chris shakes his empty beer bottle and nods at Ryan. “You got any left?”

Ryan gets up from the stoop. “A couple. You want a cigar, too?”

“Hell yeah, son,” Chris replies with a short laugh.

Jensen realizes they’re not heading to bed any time soon and he’s not willing to prolong the tension with Jared standing awkwardly by the door as Ryan heads back inside. He clears his throat and flicks his hand out as he looks right at Jared. He chews on his words when Danneel and Chris glance at each other then back to him. 

Jensen finally bites the bullet and clears his throat again. “I’m gonna head back in.”

He’ll never admit he’s disappointed that Jared either doesn’t get the clue or doesn’t want it, and Jensen’s entering his bedroom alone. It’s probably for the best. No need to make things hard on Jared just when he’s finally fit comfortably among them. Lord knows what shit Chris and Matt will give Jared once they’re all back together and Chris has his partner-in-crime by his side.

Jensen strips down to his boxers and sits on the edge of the bed as he yanks his socks off. There’s a soft knock at the barely closed door and it slips open enough for him to see Jared. 

“Hey there,” Jensen murmurs. 

“Hey.” Jared offers him a short smile. “You ran off a little fast. I was just checking that everything’s cool.”

Jensen sits up straight and runs his eyes over Jared’s nervous face, how he sucks at the corner of his mouth. It’s stupid how much it thrills him to be staring at Jared like this, after last night, and to realize Jared is here again. “Really, Jared?” he asks, only a tiny bit smug. 

Jared doesn’t reply, just glances around the room like he’s remembering it—or them—from last night.

Jensen chuckles. “You can come inside.”

Jared flushes. Maybe Jensen shouldn’t have phrased it that way, but he’s not regretting it when Jared steps a few feet into the room. “I didn’t wanna assume.”

“Do you wanna be here?” Jensen asks, even when he’s about ninety-nine percent sure of the answer.

“Yeah, I do.”

Holding a hand out, Jensen beckons him over. Jared steps closer and Jensen rings his finger into one of Jared’s belt loops, tugging him the rest of the way. Jared palms Jensen’s cheek and Jensen moves into it, then forward to kiss Jared’s shirt, pressing against his stomach. He smiles into the cotton when Jared sighs. 

In a matter of minutes, they’re on the bed and both tugging Jared’s shirt off as he looms over Jensen. They meet for a heated kiss, one that’s surer than last night, and that’s a kick to Jensen’s gut. That it’s even better. It makes him grab Jared close, though Jared doesn’t stay for long as he kisses down Jensen’s chest. Jared gets Jensen’s boxers off and sucks him off long enough to make Jensen whimper and grab at Jared’s hair. Then he kisses down the inside of Jensen’s thigh and lower before nudging Jensen over onto his stomach. 

Jensen can hear Jared’s harsh breathing, and pushes back as Jared squeezes and kneads his ass. He quietly says Jared’s name then cuts off a curse when Jared runs his fingers down Jensen’s crack. He does it again, this time with spit slicking the way, and before Jensen can get his wits about him, Jared bends himself down and licks over his hole. Jensen stuffs his face into the crook of his arm when Jared presses his tongue inside and pads his thumb behind Jensen’s balls, prodding up and in. 

It is far too fucking amazing and intense. Quickly, Jensen is impossibly hard, because Jared’s incredibly insistent and loud as he sucks at Jensen’s hole. Jensen feels like he could come out of his skin, pulse pounding in his temples, through his chest, and lower. He feels raw and open with Jared mouthing at him, but it’s also really fucking good as sparks lick up his spine every time Jared licks inside.

The pressure of Jared’s thumb against his perineum is enough to drag his orgasm out. He’s nearly embarrassed that he’s coming this fast, but, goddamn, Jared knows what he’s doing. 

Jared kisses up Jensen’s back, roaming to his side with his hand following the path of his mouth. Once he’s near enough, Jensen shifts and brings Jared next to him, leans over him and kisses him slow but thorough. 

He hums as he pulls back and sets his head to the pillow. “You should’ve told me you knew how to do that. I wouldn’t have waited so long.”

“So long to do what?”

Jensen smirks and runs his hand over Jared’s chest. “Take advantage of you.” Before Jared can reply, he sits up, pulls Jared’s jeans and boxers down, and blows him more thoroughly than he did the night before. 

Jared’s left panting with a hand slung over his face. “You definitely should’ve done that earlier. Like, day one.”

Softly laughing, Jensen settles next to him. He tugs Jared’s arm away from his face so he can look at him, all dazed out, eyes listless as they wander Jensen’s body from head to toe. Jared groans and Jensen rests his face on his hand, elbow in the pillow, as he studies Jared for a bit. 

“What? Am I not everything you thought I’d be?” Jensen keeps playing. “Disappointed with the goods?”

“God, no. _No_ , not that.” He sighs and carefully glances at Jensen before dropping his sight to Jensen’s chest. “Six months ago … I was sitting in my room, and stupidly, ridiculously infatuated with you.”

Jensen lifts his eyebrows and is somewhat impressed that Jared’s admitted it, even if it’s not too surprising.

“I’d just stare at you in night vision. And still, now, I’m getting off to you in the dark.”

Suddenly, a hard, boisterous laugh bubbles out of Jensen’s mouth. He grabs his pillow and stuffs it over Jared’s face, still laughing. “Oh my God, shut up.” 

Jared fights against him, nervously laughing, too. When Jensen lets the pillow up, he beams down at Jared. Because it’s stupid that he feels so good about this kid, even after hearing such a crazy line. This is not what he thought Jared would bring to his life, especially right after that first interview. 

“God, I should not have said that,” Jared breathes out with a strangled chuckle.

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Jensen smiles with him, though he’s feeling more free and easy than Jared looks. He pokes Jared’s side. “But it’s alright. You’re good enough in bed to cover that up.”

Jared looks over and seems hopeful that Jensen’s not lying to him. 

Jensen tsks. “Like you didn’t know what you were doing five minutes ago?”

“I might’ve learned a thing or two in college.”

“And perfected them all since then.”

Jared tips his head towards Jensen’s. “I’m a fast learner.”

“Yeah, I’m noticing that.”

Jensen doesn’t exactly wrap himself around Jared as he settles back on the bed, or at least he tells himself he hasn’t. True, his one arm is hangs above Jared’s head, the other across his shoulder, and his leg slides between Jared’s, but Jared doesn’t seem to mind.

Jared is up and carefully sliding out of bed when he can’t hear a single noise in the house. He’s hopeful he can get back to his room before anyone else wakes. There’s no way he wants to relive the morning before, facing the firing squad and being on the receiving end of all those knowing looks.

He’s getting his jeans into place, quietly zipping them up, when he hears Jensen’s sleepy grumble.

“Where you runnin’ off to?”

Jared takes a deep breath, trying to ignore the way Jensen’s groggy, lazy voice turns him on. His dick perks up and starts to pay attention, and Jared cups himself, thinking about how Jensen looks and sounds when he comes. Which is not helping. He glances over his shoulder and his dick really stands up at the sight of Jensen bare-chested, muscles going taut as he stretches and twists in bed. 

Jensen’s eyes drop to Jared’s waist and he drowsily smiles. “You want help with that?”

Screw the others, Jared figures.

* * *

Later in the day, when everyone is up and showered and hungry, they congregate in the kitchen to make what constitutes as breakfast on their schedules. Jared helps Ryan cook at the stove while Danneel mans the coffeemaker and Chris flips through site plans of the cemetery at the dining table in the next room.

“I love a Southern breakfast,” Jensen mumbles behind Jared. He rubs fingertips over Jared’s shirt as he hums at the sight of the gravy Jared’s stirring on the stovetop. 

Ryan shoots a look at them, smiling a little yet assessing, and Jared tries to smile in return. He’s not sure what to say about this thing now. Not entirely certain what Jensen wants or what Jared will get out of it, but it seems pretty damn good so far. 

As they settle down to eat, Jensen sits beside him. It feels like any other time they’re all together, except that he can acutely feel the heat of Jensen’s leg against his and the shivery tickle of Jensen’s shirtsleeve on his arm whenever Jensen shifts in his chair. 

No one says anything about it, although they each take their turn to examine Jared and Jensen. It’s extremely awkward, except that Jared’s had to face their calculating looks for months. They’d assumed he’d be a dead weight in their group, so it feels a bit familiar. And even when he’s now caught up, Chris or Matt still take the time to check whether Jared really does suit them.

“You know what we’re missing?” Jensen asks in between forkfuls of biscuits and gravy.

“Boundaries?” Chris asks, slanting a look between Jared and Jensen. 

The table goes silent, the others sharing looks as if they’re waiting for an eruption. 

Jared feels nervous and has to ask, “Is this gonna be a thing?” 

“Yes,” Chris replies as Jensen says, “No,” as he leans back in his chair and rest his arm on the back of Jared’s. 

Danneel chuckles. “As much I love me a little daytime drama, I’d rather y’all not fight in my dining room.”

“It is a very nice table,” Ryan points out.

She pets the oak top. “I got it at an estate sale. It’s been through three generations.”

Jensen shrugs and smiles at Chris. “It’s not a thing. We’re here to work and play a little, right?” When Chris doesn’t budge, Jensen jokes, “You don’t see me judging you for trying to slide right up to Danny the last three days.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Danneel coos, now petting Chris’s shoulder. “But no.”

Chris scowls at Jensen and Danneel in turn then pushes his cemetery map towards the middle of the table. “Are we gonna work or what?”

Jensen nods and just like that the tension is alleviated. “What we’re missing is a little tour of St. Louis Cathedral.”

“Dagobert,” Ryan says. “That’s not a bad idea.”

Jared glances between them all, feeling ten kinds of lost. “Dagobert?”

Jensen sets his napkin on the table then pats Jared’s thigh. “Wanna go for a little tour? I’ll show you.”

And just like that, Jared and Jensen escape the house with Jared’s camera and the keys to the SUV.

* * *

They walk up the curling brick pathway as Jared films and Jensen talks about the history of the cathedral. How the site was built upon in the early 1700s. That French engineer Adrien De Pauger worked with the Engineer-in-Chief of Louisiana to design the site. That it was dedicated to the sainted King of France, Louis VI.

“It’s the first building of its kind, with brick-post construction, which was used for the next century in New Orleans. But on March 21, 1788, at the home of Vincente Jose Nunez, the military treasurer of the colony, a candle ignited nearby drapes and the home went up in flames. Buildings all around it burned down, including the Church of St. Louis. A full year passed before the site was cleared and St. Louis Cathedral was rebuilt.

“But before that, the church buried many of its own priests and royal commissioners on the site, including Pere Antoine. He spent most of his life serving the church and when he died in 1829, all of New Orleans went into mourning. Since then, for the last two centuries, Pere Antoine’s ghost is seen walking these halls day and night. St. Louis Cathedral’s living spirit is forever serving his parish.”

Jared smiles as he keeps his lens focused on Jensen. He always loves hearing how much Jensen knows about their locations, how deep his research goes. 

“And what’s Dagobert?” Jared asks from behind his camera. 

“Not what, but who,” he replies, voice slipping away from the serious on-camera persona. 

“Okay, who is Dagobert?”

Jensen smiles and motions for Jared to walk with him up to the entrance of the cathedral. He leans against the archway, giving off his typical air of relaxed confidence, and Jared takes his camera off his shoulder. This seems so entirely different from their show that he doesn’t want to witness it from behind a camera. 

“Pere Dagobert was a Capuchin monk in the mid-1700s. He was loved by the parish for his dedication to the poor and sick, for helping all parishioners who came for worship. In 1764, the city seceded from Spain, but not without a fight. Soldiers defending the colony were left where they were slain and the Spanish leadership insisted the bodies not be moved. No one owned up to it, but the bodies were brought to the front doors of the cathedral. And then Dagobert showed up with the soldiers’ families, and he performed the proper funerals here with many parishioners mourning with them.”

Jared looks to the front pathway, imagines bodies surrounded by loved ones and a priest giving mass. When Jensen’s voice drops lower, Jared snaps his attention back to the story.

“It was dark as anything that night, a heavy mist covering the grounds. Dagobert sang the Kyrie, a Christian prayer in song. As he continued to sing, the mist rose and the bodies were gone. The Spaniards had nothing to trace, no one could explain it, and headstones were set in St. Louis No. 1 for the six soldiers.”

Jared’s face is open and surprised; his cheeks feel tight because of it. It’s not an entirely creepy story, but it’s fascinating for sure. Especially coming through Jensen’s steady cadence and easy smile. “And Dagobert now?” he prompts.

“Legend says he haunts the area, the church, the cemetery. Almost always seen with six other figures with him.”

He chuckles with good, nervous energy, and glances at the white stone of the cathedral. “Why aren’t we talking about that?”

“We _are_ talking about it.”

“I mean for the show. Why are you telling me now?”

Jensen makes a face, squinting up into the daylight. “I just thought you’d like to hear the story.”

Jared bites his lip to avoid smiling too much. Then says, “You’re a great storyteller.” He feels foolish to be gushing about that, but he figures it can’t be any worse than admitting to Jensen that he’s had a crush on him long before they met. 

Just like earlier this morning, Jensen takes it in stride and smoothly smiles at him. “How else do you think I rock this job?”

“I thought it was because you’re so good looking.”

“That, too.” Jensen nods and tugs Jared inside by his belt. “Let’s get back to work.”

* * *

“Did you actually film anything, or just screw your way around the city?” Danneel asks when they return later that evening.

“We filmed ourselves screwing through the city,” Jensen replies as he drops into an arm chair in the front parlor.

The other three stare at Jared then at his camera when he sets it on the table beside other equipment. Ryan looks at him, entirely too uncomfortable. “I have to sort through that.”

“I think I turned it off for that,” Jared says. When no one eases up, he clears his throat. “I’m kidding. Nothing happened.”

Jared still shoots Jensen a soft look when he sits next to him. For all that nothing _like that_ happened, he had a hell of a journey out in the city as he and Jensen roamed the neighborhood surrounding the cathedral and cemetery. If he really let himself think on it, he’d consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, they’re not just screwing around at an opportune getaway. That perhaps something’s really building between them – or is already there, just waiting to be seized.

Ryan plugs Jared’s camera in and they all watch the footage they’d taped earlier of the cathedral and Jensen talking about its history. They discuss how to use it as backstory for their trip, and Ryan gets to quick work cutting pieces together. It’s different to watch the rough tape, but Jared’s full of edgy excitement watching it happen in real time before him. It feels good to be in the middle of it.

* * *

For the summarization, Jared films Jensen doing his opening spiel, taking a side angle as he talks to Chris’s camera. Jensen runs through the explanation of the cemetery and that they’re now checking footage at the P.U.S.I. headquarters as he stands behind Ryan at the video console, his legs wide and arms crossed over his chest.

“So, guys,” Jensen says to Danneel and Ryan. “What are we looking at here?”

“This is just after we’d given our offerings,” Danneel replies. “And then we heard the chanting while this was happening.”

Ryan starts the tape, which is all greened out with night vision. Danneel is seen standing next to the tomb and staring off into space. “There’s this light hovering over Danneel’s shoulder,” he says, pointing at a glowing orb that swirls loosely just behind Danneel. Seconds later, she flinches on tape and flicks her hair away from her neck.

“And there,” she says firmly. “Right then is when I felt something on my neck.”

“And then a person quickly forms and dissolves behind her.”

Jared’s mouth drops as he watches it happen. It wasn’t anything he had seen while filming, but it’s quite obvious now that Ryan has pointed it out. Wisps of dark shadows move over her shoulder, she flinches, then the shadows withdraw and disappear entirely.

“What did it feel like?” Jensen asks.

“Like a breeze came through – ”

“But it wasn’t windy that night,” Chris points out.

“Right, I know!” she responds quickly, turning towards him. “But then there were fingers around my neck.”

“I remember the marks on your neck,” Jensen says.

Danneel pulls her hair away from her neck and points at a few lines across it. “Yeah, right here.”

Jared is overcome with the want to chime in, to express his own shock that Danneel still has marks on her neck. He didn’t remember seeing any of that the last few days, but he can’t deny what he’s staring at. His breathing gets tight and he wants to question them on it and ask how the marks are still there. In his lengthy TV-watching and blog-reading experience, plus his few short months with the show, he’s learned that not many _friendly_ ghosts will touch hard enough to leave marks. And for all they talked about Marie Laveau, she was anything but angry.

Instead, he remains quiet, professional, and keeps filming. 

Ryan cues up another screen with thermal imaging and explains, “Later, Chris was filming with the thermal cam and we found this image.”

The tape rolls and it’s the same frames Jared had seen the morning after they’d filmed. The screen is mostly dark with stripes of yellow and green meaning that there are low temps in the area then suddenly an orange and red figure develops on the left side. 

A shiver runs down Jared’s spine and his hearing fuzzes out. He can’t make out what the others are saying to explain it because he’s too focused watching the blur expand into the shape of a person. When he’d first seen it on Ryan’s screen three days ago, it was nothing more than a blob. Right now, Jensen is talking about Maria Laveau, her tomb, and tying them both to this thermal figure.

Any other day of the week, Jared would chime right in with his agreement of what they’re seeing, but he feels tense about speaking. His throat is thick with surprise and his stomach clenches as he watches them replay it yet again. This is the clearest thing they’ve ever taped.

“These would be her robes,” Jensen explains, fingers following the sweep of the red form. He outlines the figure where it stretches out as if its arms are spread wide. “Then her arms are out here.”

Danneel joins in. “Right then we also have an EVP of the chanting going faster than before.”

The EVP plays and Jared doesn’t hear it for what it should be. It’s all garbled and he fights to hear something real within the noise, but he just can’t. It’s the first time since that initial summarization that he doesn’t know what to say or do about what they’re seeing and hearing. 

He realizes he hasn’t moved his camera off of Jensen, and he breathes a short sigh of relief. He’s just distracted and isn’t able to hear through his own quick heartbeat. Especially not when they’re wrapping up and Jensen smiles right at him. He wills a small one in return then flinches when Danneel happily slaps Ryan on the back, as if he’s just waking up from a dream. 

“Good job, babe.”

Ryan grins back at her. “I am the best.”

She stands and leans over to kiss the top of his head. “That’s why you’re on my team. No one but you could make those videos.” 

When she finds Jared watching her, she shrugs. 

“Gotta keep him happy so he doesn’t move onto bigger, better paying jobs.”

Jared chuckles, shuts off his camera, and sets it down on the table. “I wouldn’t blame you. Three days ago, that thermal had nothing more than Jabba the Hut on it.”

“Give him two days and he can make anything appear on screen.”

He stares at her and the room is unnervingly quiet. “What do you mean, anything?”

She laughs and Jared is annoyed by the sound of it. “How do you think we got Marie on tape?” 

A moment later, she laughs again while turning towards Jensen, but Jensen just looks strangely between them. then his throat. “Danneel,” he warns.

“Yeah?”

Jensen doesn’t respond, only shakes his head, and that makes Jared finally ask what’s been disturbing him all along. “How did Marie Laveau get on our tape?” The room remains quiet and he asks again, louder, but no one will reply. “It’s not her, is it?” 

More time passes and he snaps, “Anyone? Someone?”

When no one will answer, he’s certain that the whole thing is a sham.

Jared spins in an instant and stalks out the front door, slamming it shut behind him. Danneel can be heard defending herself - _how was I supposed to know he didn’t know?_ – but he keeps moving. He’s at the bottom of the stairs when the door swings open and closed, and Jensen’s calling to him and hopping down the stairs to catch up. 

“Jared, wait a minute,” Jensen begs, tugging Jared’s arm to pull him around. 

He’s not sure what he wants right now, but it’s not Jensen telling him anything. For four months, Jensen’s been telling him things he’s believed. Hell, it’s been years that he’s bought all the hype. Jared yanks his arm away and takes a few more steps to put space between them. “So it’s all a lie? All of this is bullshit and you just kept feeding it to me? How big of a fucking joke am I?”

“Jared, it’s not like that,” he insists. 

“Oh my God,” Jared nearly wails, still fitful with disbelief. “Is this still all the hazing? Set the new kid up, tell him he’s being haunted at every turn, and then fuck around with him to distract him?”

Jensen’s face drops then goes firm with anger. “I didn’t fuck around with you to distract you.”

“So that was just a bonus?” Jared smiles a bit at the visible hit Jensen takes at that. 

Taking a deep breath, Jensen runs his hands over his face then lets them drop lifelessly at his side. His shoulders slump and he looks at Jared so earnestly it almost makes Jared’s chest hurt, but Jared still has the betrayal and embarrassment making him shake.

“Jared, that was just, I don’t know, something inevitable. It has nothing to do with the show.”

It’s impossible to sort his anger between the thoughts of being used by Jensen for fun and being used for the sake of TV. Neither is better than the other. “What’s with the show, then? Everything’s all a joke? You just mock your way through America and prey on all of us who believe in this shit?”

Jensen steps closer, stalling when Jared moves back. He sighs and puts a hand out between them. “No, it’s not a joke. We believe in it, too.”

“But you have Ryan there _creating_ evidence.”

Making an odd, tormented face, Jensen shrugs. “He enhances it.”

Jared thinks through all of their hunts in the last four months. A dozen different trips that were all _enhanced_ by handy computer work. “And Matt?”

Jensen sighs and reluctantly nods. “Yeah, him, too.”

He’s not sure he wants to know everything, but he can’t not ask. “What about the stuff during the lockdowns? The EVPs and other sounds we hear?”

“They’re set up,” Jensen admits quietly. “The recorders are pre-taped. Most of the noises are Matt.”

“And the equipment? When you have the mel meter or spirit box running?”

Jensen nods and sadly looks at Jared. “They have triggers on them.”

Jared sighs roughly and spins away. He glares at the houses around them, hating how much he’s loved being here the last few days and now everything is crashing. Running his hands through his hair, he settles them around his neck and groans. “For years, man, I fucking believed it all.”

When Jensen touches his shoulder, Jared shrugs him off and can’t look at him. He goes back inside and ignores everyone else watching him as he walks upstairs and shuts himself inside his room.

* * *

They all give him a wide berth when they set out for the airport. He’s gentleman enough to thank Danneel and Ryan for their hospitality, but otherwise keeps to himself the whole way back to L.A. Even when Matt picks them up and drops them off at their places, all the while poking and prodding about what happened to make them this depressingly morose. He and Chris crack jokes in the front seat while Jared pointedly stares out the side window.

He ignores Jensen’s calls and voicemails for the next two days. The only time he uses his phone is to reach home, owing his mom a call. It doesn’t last long when he can’t bear to tell her what happened in New Orleans. He’s too embarrassed, full of stupidity for being swept up in the show. It’s obvious she can read his distress through the line and when he won’t give up the source, the call drifts off. 

Three days after they’ve returned, there’s a knock at his door. He chides himself for flinching at it; no one’s visited him here in weeks. Before he knew the truth, he might’ve blamed it on already being on edge from lockdowns. Not now. 

He starts to open the door, but stops after a few inches with Jensen on the other side of it. 

“Can I come in?” Jensen asks when Jared won’t budge.

He takes time to think on it. There’s been enough space now that Jared’s anger has diminished into pure disappointment. In the show, himself, and definitely Jensen. He’s certain this wouldn’t hurt even a tenth as badly if they hadn’t spent two nights together, if Jared hadn’t been hanging onto the connection they’d created. 

Following long moments of silence, Jensen quietly says, “You should’ve seen me on our first lockdown.” He leans against the doorway and shoves his hands into his jeans pockets. “We were at a theater in Dallas. Supposedly, old stagehands move backdrops like they’re still working there. But there was nothing. We saw nothing, heard nothing. Steve laughed at us for days for even attempting to make something of it. He thought we were idiots for being so disappointed that we didn’t have anything to show for all the hours we filmed and all the shit we hauled around with us. We thought we’d be hotshots like everyone else out there, but we weren’t any better than them.”

It’s the first time in a long time that Jared’s heard any of them mention Steve, and he’s reminded how he started with this mess. “What happened with Steve?”

Jensen sighs and shuts his eyes for a second. “He got tired of travelling all the time and wanted a break.”

Jared immediately feels insulted on behalf of the show’s entire fanbase. “So you pretended he was possessed?”

“Yeah,” he replies, looked tired and guilty. “We pretended so it could ramp up ratings and get people excited about the show again.”

Jared leans to the side, but won’t release the doorknob, keeping the door barely open. He’s not up for talking it through. His irritation grows that Jensen’s making him. “You just made all this shit up? Steve’s possession, all the lockdowns, the interviews. You’ve lied to everyone you’ve met.”

“We _embraced it_ ,” Jensen corrects him. “We decided to play up the stories of what people have seen and heard themselves.”

Suddenly, Jared remembers when he told Jensen he was a good storyteller. He remembers thinking there was something real between them when Jensen was talking so frankly and openly with him at the Cathedral. “What about Dagobert?”

Jensen shakes his head. “That was all true. You can read it on the internet.”

“Right,” Jared laughs harshly. “Because everything on the internet is true.”

“Jared, I’m sorry.” Jensen sighs and slumps against the doorframe. “I didn’t do it on purpose. For a while, I thought you knew.”

“And when you realized I didn’t?”

He shrugs and frowns. “I didn’t wanna ruin it for you. Like telling a kid Santa doesn’t exist.”

“There’s no Santa?” Jared asks caustically. “Well, now you’re ruining everything for me.”

Jensen flinches then frowns. “You’re pissed at me, I get it. And you know-”

“Damn right I am,” Jared cuts in sharply. “You think I wanna keep doing this with you all now?”

“Well, you signed a contract,” Jensen reminds him. “So, you’re kinda stuck with us now.”

“Maybe you can just make me possessed then.”

Jensen wipes a hand over his mouth and stands up straight. He seems livid in a way Jared’s never seen before. “How long am I gonna have to wait this out?”

The change in Jensen’s demeanor is alarming. Still, Jared feels his own anger flare again. “’Til the end of my contract, I guess.”

Nodding, Jensen pushes off the doorway and huffs as he walks away. Then he stops and turns back. “For what it’s worth, I wasn’t making anything up with _you_. I like you.”

There’s something about hearing it that makes Jared want to give in, but he can’t find the words to truly express how much this whole situation is twisting him up. 

“And I wasn’t just thinking about New Orleans. I was thinking about after, and seeing you in between trips, and whatever. I never meant to hurt you.” Jared still can’t reply and Jensen deflates. “At the very least, don’t quit the show.”

He can’t think of the right response. All he can come up with is, “I guess I’ll see you on the next trip.”

Jensen nods and forces a smile. “Good. I’ll see you then.”

* * *

They’re at the notorious Helltown in Boston Township, Ohio. Stories say the area was bought out by the government, abandoned, and intended to be recycled as a national park, yet all the structures remain. The woods leading to Helltown gives a creepy vibe to their trip, but Jared’s just not feeling it.

“We’re here,” Jensen’s saying as the three of them march down a street lined with boarded-up houses, “in Helltown, Ohio. We heard from witnesses this morning that there have been numerous ghost experiences along this road.”

They come to the end of the trail and Jared stands off the side as he films. Where Jensen had always been captivating with his monologues, Jared’s now finding him cocky and overdone. He’s not sure how much longer he can listen to Jensen spout on. 

“And here, at the end of our trail.” Jensen pauses and looks right to Jared’s camera. “At the end of Stanford Road, this place is that locals have nicknamed _The End of the World_. This is where the most intense experiences have been documented.” Jensen suddenly drops his camera and his conversational voice returns. “Jared, are you with us?”

“Yeah,” he replies. Jensen’s obviously not buying it and is still staring at him; Jared can tell in the night vision that Jensen is more disappointed than pissed off. “What?”

Chris laughs harshly. “You’re wasting our time, man.”

Jared lowers his camera and it’s dark out here, but he still can make out the shapes of both Chris and Jensen standing. The angles of their arms and legs say just as much as Jensen’s noisy huff does. “What?” Jared asks again.

Chris makes another angry noise. “You know your contract is more a favor to you being able to stick around?”

“What’re you trying to say?” Jared asks.

“That we can find ways to cut contracts.”

“Chris,” Jensen butts in. “Don’t do that.”

“What?” Chris asks, angrily. “What’s the point of keeping him here if he’s gonna ruin half our takes?”

Jensen waves him off then takes a few steps towards Jared. He stops suddenly with his arms hanging lifelessly at his side. “Are you with us?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Are you _with_ us?”

“Yes, I’m with you,” Jared says forcefully. They stare at one another for quiet, tense seconds until Jared lets up on his anger. “I’m here.”

“Alright. Let’s do this again,” Jensen insists. “And maybe with a little less attitude.” Chris snorts and Jensen glances at him. “I’m talkin’ about you, too.”

Chris raises his arms in the air and then sets his camera up. “I’m not the one fucking up. But whatever.”

Jared grumbles to himself. He wants to fight them both, but he knows it’s no use. This is his one shot to take; they don’t owe him anything. After a few deep breaths, he gets his camera ready, too. “Fine, let’s go.”

Jensen moves back into place and shakes his shoulders out, like he does when resetting. He faces Jared’s camera and starts up again. “And here, at the end of our trail …”

* * *

Another week, another plane, and another bout of hating the job. Jared sits alone in an empty row and focuses on reading while people fuss around one another in the aisles.

“I didn’t think you’d make it.”

Jared glances up from his tablet to see Jensen in the aisle. 

“I didn’t see you at the gate.”

Waving his boarding pass, Jared replies, “Group A.” 

Jensen chuckles. “Lucky dog.” He looks down the aisle and there are a handful of other seats open, but he’s obviously waiting for Jared to grant him the one next to him. Jared stays quiet and watches Jensen sigh and haul his bag into the overhead compartment, shoving it into what space is left, then drop into the seat. 

It’s not so bad, Jared thinks, sitting next to Jensen for their flight out. Jensen usually sleeps for ninety percent of every flight, and Jared can keep himself busy reading. It’ll be like he’s just on his own.

Except Jared suddenly gets smacked in the back of the head. He winces and twists around to see Matt leaning back into the seat behind Jared. 

“You almost made us miss the flight, douchewad.”

Jared rubs over the crown of his head and glares at Matt. They’d never exactly gotten along anyway; Jared had been swimming in hero worship and let it slide the last few months. Right now, he just sees Matt as the pledgemaster that never grew up. 

Jensen twists around to glare at Matt. “Drop it, alright?” he says, dark and low. 

“You’re the one who said to wait,” he argues.

“Just shut up,” Jensen mutters as he turns back in his seat. “It’s a long flight.”

“Why’re you such a dick?”

“I swear to God, Matty,” Jensen complains loudly. “I will shove you out the emergency doors.”

That shuts Matt up quickly and Jared’s left staring at Jensen. 

“Jared, I-”

Jared shakes his head to cut him off and gets back to reading.

He had shown up to the airport on his own, came nice and early to check the equipment, had checked in right at the 24-hour-before mark to ensure he could pick his own seat once he boarded. He’d chosen a window seat near the back, banking on Jensen’s affinity for having the inside of the plane to sleep against and the group’s insistence on sitting up front so they could exit quickly. 

Apparently that backfired and now he’s surrounded by people he can’t stand to look at. Even if he glances at Jensen throughout the flight, and often finds Jensen watching him right back.

* * *

Chris smacks his gum between his teeth and stares at Jared while talking to Jensen. “If he’s not gonna talk, how’s this gonna work?”

Jared stares back with a lazy glance, like he doesn’t give a shit what Chris is saying right now. He goes so far as to wipe the sweat from his brow, because Jared will sweat anywhere, especially in Savanna, Georgia, and makes a show of flicking his hands out. Still pretending not to care. “I can talk, I just don’t want to.”

“It speaks!” Chris shouts, spinning to Jensen with his arms stretched out. 

Jensen rolls his eyes and snags Chris’s camera from his hand before Chris loses his grip on it. “Watch your own stuff and do your job.”

“You two really aren’t gonna talk?” Chris asks, sounding less annoyed and more curious. He looks between them and Jared grants Jensen a quick look. “Okay, awkward.”

Jared isn’t up for defending the fact that he’s feeling the need to support this show when all that he’s believed in it has been pulled out from under him. He’s gone over this with himself during their last few trips, and he decided that meeting his contract was the easiest thing to do. And perhaps beneficial, if he wants to remain in camera work. 

He figures he’ll use them the way they used him. 

Suddenly, Jensen is in front of him and speaking low. “Look, I’ve told them to give you a break, but you gotta meet me halfway.”

He wants to smart off a _thank you so very much_ , but Jensen appears worried, sounds it, too, and Jared knows he can’t hold up this act forever. Even feeling left out high and dry, a man can only stand up to Jensen Ackles for so long. 

Jared turns his attention to the side and motions towards the man exiting the Pirate’s Head, their chosen lockdown for this week. “Here comes the owner. We should get to work.”

Jensen stumbles a step or two, like he knows he should go talk to Thomas Smith, their host, but isn’t about to leave Jared’s side. “You’ll be okay, right? You’ll try?”

“I’m here,” Jared points out, trying to soften his words. 

Squeezing Jared’s elbow, Jensen smiles, nods in thanks, then walks over to the owner. 

In the meantime, Jared focuses his impatience on getting B-roll of the seaside bar and grill. He’s trying.

* * *

After dark, Jensen and Chris stand on the brick sidewalk in front of The Pirate’s House while Jared stands in front to tape Jensen’s introduction to their lockdown. Jared does his best to not get riled up at the animated way Jensen amps up the history of the place.

“We’re getting locked down in The Pirate’s House, the oldest building in all of Savannah. The employees and owner of the tavern have reported apparitions in the main barroom and the basement. They report residual, angry feelings inside. We have Matt watching and listening to everything while he’s stationed upstairs in the Smith’s home. It’s pitch black inside and we only have our cameras on night vision to light our way. We’re gonna see what we can stir up inside.”

They do their typical sweep of the place, taking in the bar-top tables with stools and low, square tables with chairs around them, the long wooden bar, and historical photos on the wall that date back to the mid-1700s, when the inn and tavern was first built.

Jared swings his camera around the room and focuses it on a few photos of angry, bearded men. It’s a bit creepy to zoom in on them and listen to Jensen recount how pirates used to ravage the neighborhood then congregate here. He’ll just chalk that up to the darkness and his history of watching the show, once believing in these stories.

For the next hour, Chris and Jensen try talking to spirits and tape EVPs. They taunt and dare the spirits to use them to speak, to come out and show them they’re here.

Jared doesn’t know what exactly they say or claim to hear in return. He’s got his camera turned on them while he’s looking off in the corner. He doesn’t hear anything other than Jensen and Chris, but there’s tension in the air and he senses someone behind him. 

“Jared!” Jensen says. “Did you hear that?”

In his camera’s viewfinder, he sees Jensen is staring back with his own camera focused on him. Instead of running with their game, he admits, “No, I didn’t.” Chris sighs, and Jared turns back towards the nearby corner again. “I think … I think there’s something else.”

“Like what?” Jensen asks.

“Someone,” he mumbles. 

Jensen steps next to him and even in the pitch dark, he can sense that Jensen is trying to film the area, too. “Is there someone here with us? Can you answer us in this recorder here?”

Something slinks up Jared’s neck and he spins around, dragging his camera with him to find Chris a few feet away It’s not terribly close, yet close enough, and Jared’s anger boils. “What the hell, man? Don’t touch me.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Chris yells back. 

“Yeah, right, you didn’t. I felt it.” Before Chris can answer for himself, fingers scratch down Jared’s neck, and he swings around to Jensen. “Would you leave me the fuck alone!” 

He can’t stop shaking as he feels his heart race. His breathing comes in short pants. He’s so unbelievably angry with Jensen and Chris right now that it takes a few moments to recognize that Jensen is staring at him like Jared’s just ripped someone’s arm off.

Through his viewfinder, Jared films the corner again then brings his free hand up to his neck.

“Holy shit, Jared,” Jensen gasps. His fingers join Jared’s on his neck and trace the burning lines Jared can’t ignore. 

“Stop, just … stop.” Jared turns away from Jensen and drags his fingertips across his skin. It feels hot and clammy, just like the rest of him. “Did you scratch me?” he asks while filming Jensen.

“No, I didn’t, I swear.”

“Where’s Matt?”

“He’s back in the room,” Jensen answers oddly. 

Jared continues to stare at Jensen and then it’s like all his energy drains down through his legs and he’s dizzy and weak. When he stumbles toward the bar to grab one of the high-back stools, Jensen goes with him and keeps him upright with his free hand grabbing Jared’s side.

“Oh, shit, Jared,” Chris mumbles as he comes to help, too.

Jared can’t look at him right now. He can’t see anything in the dark, and even if he could, he’s sure it would be blurry and shaky.

“Here, hang on,” Jensen says as he puts his camera on the bar and then nudges Jared closer to a stool to prop himself up. He sets his hand on Jared’s back and leans in close. Jared finds it useless since it’s still dark as shit in here. “What’s wrong?”

Jared tries to blink his eyes open and closed, ease himself into keeping them open, but the darkness just makes him more disoriented. He flinches when Jensen snaps a flashlight on and aims it at Jared’s face. Jared covers the end of the flashlight with his palm, letting enough light out to see the shape of Jensen’s face right in front of his own. 

“Hey, Jared,” Jensen murmurs, sweeping a hand over Jared’s head, pushing hair out of his face. “Look at me.”

Bringing his eyes up to Jensen’s, he can’t help but get lost in the wide gaze Jensen has on him, face full of worry and shock. “Just got dizzy,” he manages to say. “It’s stuffy in here.”

He knows Jensen’s stepped back, but it doesn’t make sense until he hears Jensen and Chris talking quietly a few feet away.

“How warm is it in here?”

“Maybe 60’s?”

“What’s the mel meter say?”

“… Sixty-two.”

“The mel meter’s shit,” Jared grumbles then leans harder on the bar. Nothing seems right. He feels as if just saying those four words have drained him of any energy and sense of orientation he’d dragged back together in the last few minutes.

He then hears Jensen tweak his walkie-talkie. “Matt, do you see anything?”

“Negatory,” Matt replies, all static.

“Hear anything?”

“No, dude, you’re a-okay.”

Jensen sighs and Jared huffs in return. “There’s no such thing as ghosts. Remember?”

“They said angry spirits,” Chris whispers.

“He’s already been angry,” Jensen replies.

“This is _angry_ , Jen.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jared says tiredly. He breathes roughly and turns his head in their direction, barely making them out with the flashlight still on the bar pointing towards him. 

There’s a hard pressure in Jared’s chest and instead of feeling faint and sweaty, his fingers go ice cold. He stands and fumbles with the flashlight, aiming it at Jensen and Chris. He’s about to complain about the air conditioning when everything goes black.

Jensen goes to the front door and yanks on the handle, but it won’t budge. He checks over his shoulder to see Chris is still standing with Jared, who’s now slouching in a chair and staring into space.

If he thought Jared was the truly vindictive type, he’d think Jared was paying him back. That he’s playing up - _enhancing_ \- his reactions in this room. No matter how tense things have been, Jensen can’t believe Jared would do that, which means something else is wrong. 

He tugs the door handle again; it still won’t do him any good. He knocks on the door and tries to see through the glass windows on either side of the door. He doesn’t spot the owner in sight and knocks harder. They’ve never had to call a lockdown before. Not since, well, Steve. That was something completely different, though, and Jensen feels more anxious this time around.

If Jared is sick or whatever, he’d rather not continue on.

Something grabs his shoulder and he spins with his hands flying out to hit Chris, looking just as alarmed. 

“Dude, it’s just me!”

Jensen sighs. “Yeah, I see that. The owner’s gone,” he says, pointing towards the window.

“Why’re you looking for him?”

“To get Jared out. If he’s sick or …” Jensen trails off.

“No big deal. Jared’s fine now.”

“What do you mean he’s _fine now_?”

“I got him some juice from the bar and he’s got his head back on.”

Jensen walks right back into the bar area and finds Jared upright and almost looking like himself as he stands from his seat. “Chris says you’re feeling better?”

“Yeah, I am,” Jared says with more of his usual comfortable tone. Jensen continues to check him over, and Jared nods and smiles a little. “I feel better. Let’s keep going. Just get this over with.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Jensen grabs the flashlight, clicks it off, and pockets it. He picks his camera back up and aims it forward, moving to the back of the bar where stairs lead to the basement. 

Jensen’s never had a problem leading in a lockdown; he feeds off the adrenaline of stepping first into the dark. He’s never worried about it before. Right now, he’s taking the stairs slower than usual, training his ears on the sounds of two sets of footfalls following him into the cement basement. He checks behind him while looking through his viewfinder to make sure Jared and Chris are still there and each in one relatively normal piece. 

When Chris nods at him, Jensen creeps through the space and keeps his eyes on Chris’s camera so he can explain what they’re doing.

“Down in the basement is where the waitress said she saw the dark form standing in the corner, another server had unexplained scratch marks on her back, and the owner experienced heightened anger, a fierce rage overtake him. We believe it might be one of the pirate spirits that remain in The Pirate’s Head.”

Jensen walks to the middle of the space and holds his EVP recorder up. “Are there spirits here?” he calls out. “Is anyone with us?”

He roams the area and gets back into his script, building himself back up. “If you’re down here, why’re you so scared to talk to us? Why don’t you show us you’re here? Shove some stuff around again, like you did with the waitress!”

His voice echoes after him and it’s completely quiet until Chris makes a harsh noise and when Jensen turns to him, he looks confused. “It’s getting colder down here.”

Nearly every time they claim temperature drops on this show, Chris starts it. He has some internal trigger to force his arm hairs on end. It used to be a cheap party trick, then it became one of the best plays on their show. Chris nearly seems surprised, now, to feel anything.

Focusing on Jared, Jensen asks, “Do you feel it?”

Jared seems hesitant to reply, but agrees that he does. 

Jensen fumbles his mel meter out and films the screen dropping from sixty-nine to fifty-two in seconds. He stretches his fingers away from the box. The temperature falls a few more degrees, and Jensen feels his skin prickle, so he takes his walkie talkie out again. “Matt, turn off your signals.”

“They’re off, man. They went out about ten minutes ago.”

He pauses and thinks back to when they were upstairs. “What do you mean they went out?”

“They went out, what do you want me to say?” The walkie squeaks and whistles at Jensen until Matt adds on, “The whole connection keeps dropping. I tried to warn you.”

Jensen clips the walkie into the back of his jeans and holds the EVP out again. “Is there someone here making it this cold? Are you the one who’s been hurting people? Are you the one making them all angry?”

There’s a whisper behind him, but when he turns around there’s only the brick wall in his viewfinder. 

“I heard something,” Chris says. Instead of his normal, excitable reaction, his voice sounds tight. “What was that?”

Jensen rewinds the tape and plays it back. He squeezes his eyes shut to focus on what he hears; there’s his own voice asking questions, then a faded _I’m gonna hurt you, too_. The EVP slips from his hands and he scrabbles to pick it up again. 

“Jensen, dude,” Chris mumbles, and Jensen’s sure they’re thinking the same thing. 

That line was not what they had pre-taped. 

He trades the EVP in his pockets for the spirit box. Before he starts it, he warns Matt not to use the signals, that they’re doing this solo. Matt sounds confused, but insists they’re disconnected. The box blares with stuttered noises and Jensen spins in place as he talks. “Is there someone there? Speak into this box if you’re here.”

After a four-second delay, the box spits out, _Here_ , and Jensen tightens his grip around it. 

“Why are you still here?”

 _Hurt you_.

“Jensen,” Chris says, “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he grumbles. Because he really fucking doesn’t. “Why do you want to hurt us?”

_You … Trespass_

Before Jensen can think of his next question, there’s a shuffle of noise to his left. He whips his camera in that direction and sees Jared turning towards the wall and cursing. “What is it?” Jensen asks in a rush.

“I felt it again.”

“Felt what?”

“The scratches.”

Jensen goes to Jared and angles his camera close to Jared and that’s when he sees three distinct scratches down the column of Jared’s neck. He runs his fingers over them and Jared hisses then nudges Jensen away from him. 

“Is this some new trick of yours?” Jared asks.

“No, and fuck you,” Jensen spits out before he knows what he’s saying. His heart pounds hard enough that he’s feeling its harsh beat in his temples. Jared comes in close with his camera, and Jensen immediately shoves his hand over the lens and pushes him away. “Get that out of my face.”

“What the hell?” Jared complains as he rights his camera. 

Seconds later, Jensen loses his grip on the spirit box and it drops to the ground. He thinks about picking it up, but his knees are locked tight and he’s suddenly too dizzy to move. 

_Got you_ stutters out of the box

Jensen shakes his head, wills himself to move. When he does, however, it’s just a few wobbly steps. A couple more and he starts to get his wits about him and breathes deep to get himself back in order. 

“What’s going on?” Jared asks with his camera trained right on him. 

“I just … I can’t, I can’t breathe.”

“But you’re okay?” Chris asks. 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Gimme a second.”

The room falls silent as Jensen levels his breathing and his equilibrium rights itself. When he stands up, Jared jerks and shouts, “Holy shit! Behind you!”

Jensen twists around to a man in his viewfinder. He’s dressed just like all the portraits upstairs, has hollowed out eyes and mouth, and is reaching toward Jensen with a misty hand. “What the fuck?!” Jensen yells as he stumbles back into Jared. Moments later, the apparition is gone. 

Jared slips his hand under Jensen’s arm and keeps him upright, which is great because Jensen’s knees are so wobbly, he’s not sure he could turn around to run even if he wanted to. It’s the first time he’s truly seen something in person, and the spirit box stammering on isn’t helping him calm down.

They each film the area and search for the apparition, but it’s just an empty, dusty basement again, boxes piled in one corner. 

“Jared, you taping?”

“Never stopped.”

“Welcome to your first real hunt,” he jokes, but it’s obviously tense.

A box flies off the top of the pile and a half dozen liquor bottles crack and spill out on the floor. 

“Hey, I got you,” Jared says quietly, tugging Jensen out of range. 

Jensen sighs even as his body tenses up. “Appreciated.”

“Oh god!” Chris shouts and shuffles back against a wall. 

Jared and Jensen each train their camera on the spot where Chris had been seconds earlier, right at the base of the stairs where the apparition now stands. 

Jensen shifts around Jared, letting Jared zoom in, while Jensen talks into his camera to describe the whirlwind of the apparition throughout the room. His words get faster and more excited as he goes, and it’s fucking fantastic.

“We’re here in the basement and Jared and Chris are filming our spirit. It’s one of the pirates, and he’s been reacting to us all evening, now making his second appearance. This is _awesome_ ”

“Dude, so awesome,” Chris adds on.

Jensen grins at Jared and in the viewfinder, he sees that Jared’s tiny, nervous smiling is growing wider the longer he films the spirit.

* * *

More boxes get tossed, bottles break, and items fly off shelves in the storage area beneath the stairs. They film it all and are only disappointed when light starts to filter into the tiny windows and the activity slows down with the coming morning.

Chris leads them up to the front hallway where they wait for Thomas to let them out, slowly unlocking and tugging the chains away from the door handles. Long moments later, they stumble out onto the brick sidewalk and Jensen jogs out into the street to stare at the building. Chris drops down to sit on the sidewalk and Jared staggers towards Jensen. He keeps looking between Jensen and the building, chest rising and face pale as ever. 

Suddenly they both start smiling, then laughing, and Jensen can’t stop himself from grabbing hold of Jared’s face and yanking him in to kiss. He feels as shocked as Jared looks, but Jared then smiles again and there is energy flying in the air. 

“I cannot believe this,” Jensen says as he lets Jared go. “Jesus fucking Christ, dude!” he exclaims, turning towards Chris.

But Chris isn’t nearly as excited, putting up a hand in warning. “Don’t you bring that mouth near me.”

Jensen smiles at Jared and feels a flare of excitement when Jared returns the fond look.

“You boys find anything?” Thomas asks. His voice is dry and rough, like he hardly understands what’s going on, or doesn’t believe they could honestly answer yes.

Jensen chuckles and shakes his head. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told ya.”

Thomas kicks a little dirt and nods. “Yeah, kinda figured.”

“Good thing we’ve got it on tape then,” Jared points out, motioning his camera.

The man’s face drops and Jensen immediately grins. At Thomas, Chris, and then Jared again. 

He stalls when he realizes those marks on Jared’s neck stand out dark red and harsh, like they’ve begun to bleed. Jensen reaches towards him, his hand just barely touching the scratches before he loses his train of thought. 

“Well, what kinda stuff?” Thomas asks.

Jared searches Jensen’s face then licks his lips and aims a playful look at Thomas. “Guess you’ll have to watch it on TV. Just like everyone else.”

Chris whistles at Jared’s cockiness – Jensen would, too, if he weren’t so shocked by it. 

Once Thomas lets them be, Jensen nudges Jared around to face him. “What’s with the big bravado?”

“Yeah,” Chris asks as he gets up to his feet. “Three weeks ago you were gonna tear up your contract.”

Jared shrugs with attitude. “And today, I’m the one sayin’ I told ya so.”

Jensen huffs, but can’t deny he’s smiling along with Jared now. “Alright, hot shot, let’s get us some grub and get outta here.”

* * *

Back in L.A., Chris is dropped off first then they’re pulling up to Jensen’s place. He isn’t the only one getting out as he insists Jared help with the equipment. “We should keep the goods locked up tight here,” Jensen insists.

Jared is suspicious as he gets out of the SUV, but he’s out and Jensen counts that as a win. “What? Like you don’t trust my place?”

“Your door has a habit of being broken.”

“By you!” Jared laughs.

Jensen shrugs then nods towards his building. “You wanna bring the stuff up or what?”

Outright ignoring how Matt is staring at them like they each grew four heads, Jensen awaits Jared’s glance toward the building, and then his long look right at Jensen. 

“You’re wastin’ my time,” Matt complains, glaring at Jared.

That gets Jared going, nabbing his bags and the equipment out of the SUV as he glares equally as hard in return. “Just so you know, _Matty_ ” – and Matt scowls even deeper – “You’re a huge douchetip with no applicable skills. And your eyebrows are huge.”

Matt grumbles as he runs a hand over his eyebrows then quickly shifts the vehicle into gear and drives away.

“You feel better now, champ?” Jensen asks.

Jared nods. “Yeah, a little. I never really liked him.” Then he frowns. “Though now I’ll have to get a cab, I guess.”

“No one really likes him,” he replies as he leads Jared into the building. “And I’ll get you a ride home.”

“Then why do you keep him around?”

“He used to lift all the heavy things. Then he kinda just grew on us.” 

Once inside, Jared sets the bags to the floor and looks around. The place isn’t overly decorated, but Jensen’s aware that it’s classy enough with high-end furniture and expertly framed art on the walls to imply he isn’t poor by any means. Jensen can tell that Jared’s more than impressed with the sprawling entertainment center and leather sectional framing the living room. 

“You want the grand tour?” Jensen offers.

“Do I _need_ the grand tour?”

Jensen lifts an eyebrow and Jared seems to mock him by doing the same. “You’re gonna make me work for this, aren’t you?” When Jared shrugs, Jensen shakes his head and chuckles. He moves into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and hands one to Jared, too. “You told me so. There.”

“That was so heartfelt,” Jared says. Jensen’s about to defend himself, but Jared puts his hand up to stop him. “You don’t need to say anything else. It’s not even an ‘I told you so’. More like a ‘finally it’s real,’ or something. I don’t know.”

“It’s definitely real. Judging by your neck.”

Jared seems self-conscious as he reaches up and runs fingers along the mark. 

Jensen nods at him. “You should get it looked at.”

“And tell ‘em what? That I have an angry ex-girlfriend?”

With a snort, Jensen says, “About the same level of anger.” 

Jared lamely smiles and keeps glancing away then at Jensen. 

“You don’t have any angry ex-girlfriends, do you?”

“No,” Jared replies, confused. “Do you?”

“No.” He sighs at himself for being in this stupid situation. For the last few weeks, he’s thought about how he could have avoided pissing Jared off, disappointing him, but he’s not sure it would have changed a thing. Jared would’ve been upset earlier on and they would not have had those few days together in New Orleans. “But I got this guy that I wish I didn’t make so angry.” 

“I’m not _that_ angry.”

Jensen feels his face go warm as nerves hit him, and he tries to smile at Jared, but he’s sure it’s more of a grimace. “What happened back at The Pirate’s House? It was pretty insane and –”

“And pretty awesome,” Jared cuts in happily. 

He takes a deep breath and nods, acknowledging that it really was. For all the years he and Chris have been doing this – even further back when Jensen sat at home watching Unsolved Mysteries and chilling ghost movies – this is the first time he’s had a true face-to-face encounter. “Definitely awesome. Awesome to have seen it together.”

Jared visibly swallows and seems to tense up. Jensen’s not sure if it’s for good or bad, and he figures he’ll just go for it. It seems like the right time to finally be serious and open.

“I’m sorry for everything. The lying about the show, not cluing you in when I realized you didn’t know, for how you found out. If I could take it all it back, I would, just to make it better for you.”

“All of it?”

“Yeah, I would’ve done it all differently. I wouldn’t have …” Then he stops as he sees something in Jared’s eyes. “I wouldn’t have given you a hard time when you first joined us.” Jared blushes and Jensen adds, “And I wouldn’t have put you off for so long, or waited for something between us.”

After a few quiet seconds, Jared asks, “And?”

“And I wouldn’t have invited you up here without trying to make something happen.”

“Like that grand tour?”

“You want it?”

Jared licks his lips and glances around at the areas he can see – the kitchen and living and dining rooms. “Maybe not _grand_ tour, but you know …”

Jensen smiles crookedly and motions toward his bedroom. “After you.”

Jared moves slowly to the hallway and on through to the bedroom with Jensen trailing behind. As soon as Jensen’s crossed the threshold, Jared grabs his face and thoroughly kisses him. It’s a surprise for how quick heated it is. Jensen immediately wraps his arms around Jared’s waist to pull them flush together. 

In moments, they’re on the bed and Jared is working Jensen’s jeans open and down, his warm palms stroking over Jensen’s thighs, up and across his ass and back. 

Jensen does Jared the same favor and pushes Jared’s shirt up to his arms to suck along his chest, focusing on one nipple then the other. Jared whines, and Jensen mouths higher up Jared’s chest, moving to his jaw before looking him in the face. “Apology accepted, I’d assume?”

“Are we really talking now?”

Jensen reaches down to stroke Jared through his boxers, pleased when Jared whimpers and shifts his hips forward. “Just making sure you know I’m not just trying to take advantage of you.”

In lieu of answering, Jared forces Jensen to his back, pinning him down with the weight and length of his body, legs twining with Jensen’s. He slips his hand into the back of Jensen’s underwear and presses his finger along Jensen’s hole, making Jensen swear this time.

“Maybe I wanna take advantage of you,” Jared suggests. 

“Don’t get too cocky there.” 

Jared rocks down on Jensen, showing Jensen just how cocky he really is, and it takes all of Jensen’s willpower to not whimper and hump against Jared’s leg before this gets anywhere good. Jensen sighs and shuts his eyes, putting forth his best effort to not shoot off right now. “Just tryin’ to remind you, the audience loves sweet, little Jay.”

Jared pauses, and it makes Jensen open his eyes. Their faces are incredibly close, eyes crossing to look at one another. “And what about you?”

There’s no way he can voice it properly, so instead he surges up to kiss Jared, deep and slow. Just like that first time, Jensen relishes the way they’re instantly in tune and Jared matches right back, lips and tongue intent and gliding right over Jensen’s. He knows Jared’s gotten the message when Jared’s finger goes back to pressing against Jensen’s hole, bearing all of his weight down on him. 

Jensen is completely aware of Jared’s fingers inside him, of Jared sucking along the sensitive dip beneath his jaw, of them moving to their sides and tugging one another closer as they just grind together and breathily moan right through it. What’s more consuming, though, is the way he can’t breathe, can’t think, barely aware either of them are coming until they’re both slick with come and sweat, both breathing harshly. Jared has filled his senses completely because the critical thinking segment of his brain has gone offline.

He’s now laid out on his back with his arms thrown out lifelessly, one resting above Jared’s head as his fingers carelessly thread through the tips of Jared’s hair. 

Equally lax, Jared slants toward him with a leg between Jensen’s and tucks his head down into the pillow as his breathing eases up. “Good thing Matt didn’t stick around and wait,” Jared mumbles. 

Jensen laughs and turns to his side. He kisses the top of Jared’s head and rings his other arm around Jared’s back. He could fall asleep just like this and love it.

“You never really answered,” Jared murmurs, face moving just enough to look at Jensen. “Which Jared you like.”

“I thought that was kinda obvious.”

“You’re good with words. Use a few.”

Jensen raises an eyebrow, prepared to chuckle at Jared’s newfound bravado. He has always liked Jared’s sweet, carefree sense of humor, and also how wondrous and willing to learn and ask questions he’s been. He’d bet that the last few weeks have given Jared a bit of attitude, but it’s a nice addendum to Jensen’s picture of him: to see Jared standing on his own. 

“Any that stick around,” Jensen murmurs. After a moment, he cups Jared’s chin and tips his face up so they can properly look at each other. “I told you before that I like you. That hasn’t gone away.” Jensen swallows and just goes for it by adding, “Probably won’t for a while. I like all of your Jareds.”

“Those are some good words.”

“Shut up,” Jensen complains as he playfully pushes Jared away. “Now you’re just mocking me.”

“I would never,” Jared replies, just barely sounding earnest. His smile betrays him, though. “Okay, maybe I would. I do owe you for a few months of hazing.”

Jensen looks across Jared’s face, taking in the scruff starting to grow, his bright eyes, and the mess of hair across his forehead. He brushes the hair away then matches Jared’s fond look. “Yeah? How you gonna punish me for that?”

Jared practically glows as he bites the corner of his mouth, and his dimples pop. “I’ve got a few ideas. Maybe make you check the baggage for a while. Carry your own damn cameras.”

Jensen laughs with Jared. He briefly considers taking over equipment duty that just to be nice to him, to share the load. He’s sure he will be a lot nicer to Jared in a various ways. 

It doesn’t hurt that Jensen’s feeling rejuvenated with the job thanks to their latest find, to have experienced it with Jared right alongside him. And now Jared is stretching out along Jensen’s side, and Jensen is sure that life in general will be a lot better with Jared next to him. Just, everything in general feels a little brighter now that they’ve made up. 

So he’s pretty smug when he smiles and nods. “Can’t wait.”


End file.
